


Head's underwater (but I'm breathing fine)

by Jinxgirl



Category: Jessica Jones (TV), Luke Cage (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:13:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 16
Words: 72,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinxgirl/pseuds/Jinxgirl
Summary: Post Kilgrave, Jessica meets a man who changes her world. Unbreakable skin somehow manages to pierce her defenses. Somewhat AU- Reva Connors was not Luke's wife, and Jessica did not meet Luke until after Kilgrave's death. Circa season two. Luke/Jessica and Trish/Danny pairing. Writing with Macal C, he writes for Luke and Danny, and I write for Jessica and Trish.
Relationships: Danny Rand/Patricia Walker, Luke Cage/Jessica Jones
Comments: 9
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

A few weeks post Kilgrave’s death- the second and final one- Jessica has started to get back into some semblance of a routine. Unsatisfyingly enough, it somewhat resembling the one she had before she first heard of Hope Schlottman and realized her assumption of Kilgrave’s death was just that, an assumption. She stayed out all hours of the night, stalking her latest client’s cheating lover or faithless employee, snapping pics, and killing her bored cynicism with steady swigs from whatever bottle of whiskey or bourbon she had along for the ordeal. She finished out her nights drinking in a bar until they closed up or she grew obnoxious enough for them to kick her out, or else she bought some booze to take to her home/office and finish off until she managed, if she was extremely luckily, to pass out into something resembling sleep, even if it was nearly always plagued by nightmares that woke her up gasping, her back and neck slick with sweat.

That was her nights. In the day, she avoided texts and calls from her adoptive sister/best friend Trish, because she didn’t want to see the aggressive caring and sympathy in her blue eyes or hear the judgment in her voice. She didn’t want her asking questions about her flashbacks, nightmares, and drinking habits post killing Kilgrave that she didn’t want to answer, and she didn’t want to look in Trish’s face and see the possible trauma lingering there after what she had forced her to endure simply by being involved in Jessica’s life while Kilgrave remained obsessed with it. She also avoided any other activity that might involve civil interaction with semi normal humans, but that wasn’t anything new.

But a girl had to work, if only to pay rent for her shitty home/apartment and to buy her booze. So at some point she had to suck it up and actually return the messages her assistant Malcolm had professionally and helpfully noted down from potential clients, and actually go out to work again.

Her latest assignment was nothing special. A jealous man in his sixties, suspecting his newest wifey of cheating on him and asking Jessica to follow her and determine if this were true. Seeing as his wife was in her twenties, Jessica had laughed in his face and told him that was a given, but Malcolm’s glare in her direction and polite rephrasing of her words had meant she was out here after Britney Carter-Wright, age 23, following her to some new club that Jessica hadn’t even bothered to note the name of. 

She certainly hadn’t bothered to dress to blend in with the other club-goers either; Jessica couldn’t be bothered, when Britney was hardly going to pay her mind even if she stuck her phone camera directly in her face and told her to say cheese. Clad in her usual attire of dark skinny jeans, torn at the knees not for style but due to actual repeated wear, her dark jacket, and a plain t-shirt, her face free of makeup, dark hair loose and barely brushed around her face, Jessica snapped the pictures of Britney that were required. Tongue down random clubgoers’ throats, both male and female, check. Hand down a guy’s pants, guy’s hands up her shirt, check check. Disappearing into back alley, check. And soon enough, Jessica would get a check of her own.

It was enough, paired with her earlier shots of the week, for Jessica to have more than enough evidence. Stashing her phone, she stood, weaving through the dancers to the bar, and slung herself onto an empty stool. Might as well start the drinking early. 

It’s been about 4 months since Luke Cage had taken over Harlem’s Paradise. The place is doing well, not bad for a man with absolutely no experience running a club, but keeping the drugs out and thugs out is a major plus for business. They all know that Harlem’s Paradise is the new Switzerland or Holy Ground…Holy Ground where you can come drink yourself stupid and grind on a perfect stranger, but safe.

Walking the floor greeting folks and pressing flesh is part of the business for him now days, as well as turning down things like strange women shoving their panties in his pockets like this woman just did…Just nasty! He makes his way over to the bar and slides around where the staff is, tossing the panties into the trash then washing his hands.

From the sink, he looks up and notices a new face. Not the typical kind of client that visits a club in Harlem. She damn sure ain’t dressed for the place, anyway. Grabbing a towel and drying his hands, Luke looks at her drink and decides to introduce himself. He steps in front of her and leans down on the bar and gives a sly smile. 

“Let me guess, couldn’t get tickets to Hamilton so you decided to drown your sorrows in our cheapest whiskey…Ugh,” He looks down at the bottle her drink was poured from and grabs a top-shelf bottle and a new glass. Raising an eyebrow at the woman, he pours it for her while trying to take the other one away. 

“Come now, don’t drink that. I think we clean the rust off the pipes with that stuff.” Again he smiles at her. “The first one is on me.” 

Jessica slid her eyes up towards the deep man’s voice addressing her, ready to respond with an uplifted middle finger and a bitter retort. She was used to being hit on in bars and rarely welcomed it; it was one of many reasons for her lack of effort in her attire.

But as she took in the person attached to the voice, an eyebrow rose, and she reconsidered. He was a lot more attractive than the men she generally encountered in dive bars. Truthfully, he could be described as hot, far more so than Jessica considered herself to be. Tall, at least six inches taller than her own 5'9 frame, very broad and muscled without it seeming overly so due to steroids.

Why the hell was he talking to her? Did he figure she was cheap so she must be easy?

Hell, maybe she was for a guy like him.

She accepted the drink and took a swig, nodding approval. “Good shit. Am I supposed to know what Hamilton is, or is that something boring and pretentious?”

Luke smirks when she addressed him. 

“ Pretentious? Oh, you definitely aren’t from around here. But seriously, what brings you to our little neck in the woods? If you don’t mind me asking, because…How do I say this and not offend…you’re lilly white and this doesn’t look like your kind of scene.” 

He is quite intrigued by her look, long dark hair, thin but still toned frame. She’s a gorgeous woman despite being dressed more like she belongs in a biker bar instead of a nightclub in Harlem.

He waits for an answer, hoping he didn’t blow his chance to get to know her by being so blunt, but ain’t nobody got time to play games these days.

Jessica snorts at his comment about not being from around there, taking another long and appreciative swallow of the way nicer drink he had just served her. Looks aside, the man had good taste in booze if not who to try to pick up. “What gave it away, the clothes or the drinks?”  
She actually barked a laugh, surprised he had the balls to actually comment on her skin color. It raised her respect, not to mention her interest, a few notches. “What, you think I prefer coffins or graveyards? Being ghost white makes me victim of shitty genes, not a vampire wannabe who didn’t get the memo of the look being stuck in 1998.”

Before he can follow up his bluntness with a more charming line, a bit of commotion catches his eye over her shoulder. At the moment it’s just a couple of fools getting a little aggressive with some females, but they seem to be holding them off. Shaking his head, Luke decides to let things play out a bit, hoping it will solve itself. But they’re getting worst and louder, actually starting to draw the attention of other people in the club. 

One of the ladies sees him behind the bar and she starts to walk towards him, pulling her friends with her. Just as she’s about to reach the bar one of the assholes grabs her by the shoulder, spins her around, and slaps her so hard she flies into the woman sitting at the bar. He is on her again and shoving her just as she’s about to lift her glass again. 

“BITCH DON’T WALK AWAY FROM ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU!” 

Luke is pissed. The glass in his hand is just crushed. The glass, as well as the very expensive whiskey, falls to the floor in big shards, but despite the sharp glass there doesn’t seem to be any cuts or blood from his hands. Ignoring what he just did, he starts to move from around the front of the bar.

Jessica’s head whips around at the commotion going on between the man knocking around the female club attender. Eyes narrowing, shoulders drawing tight with anger, she gets to her feet abruptly, barely noticing Luke shatter the bottle- but she did notice. No time to respond to that. Sliding her slim body past the other partiers in between, she nimbly seizes the aggressive man by his collar and shoves her face into his, not caring he is several inches taller and a whole lot heavier.

“Right, your ass called. It wants you to join it outside where it belongs.” She then punctuated the words by heaving him over her head and out the door of the club, timing it so he flew through just as the door was being opened to admit another group. She almost knocked one out with his flying body, but just missed her.

By the time Luke made it around the bar, things had already gotten violent, just as he’s about to grab a guy by the collar he’s yanked out of reach and flung across the room and out the door.   
“Sweet Christmas!” He thinks to himself. Did he just see this tiny woman throw a grown-ass man 30 feet and out the door?? 

He stands there a bit in awe as she pretty much handles these men like rag dolls, not noticing two of their friends coming at him with knives towards him, one from his left side tries to stab him in the stomach, the other swiping at his throat, both knives snapped instantly as they hit their marks, tearing his shirt but doing nothing to his skin. Luke looked down, more annoyed about his shirt than the attempt on his life. With little effort he lifts his fist and slowly drops it down on the first guy’s head, barely tapping him but instantly knocking him out.

“Seriously, do you fools know who I am? “ He grabbed the second man by the shoulder and squeezed it till he collapsed to the floor crying. “Get yo ass out of my club!”

Between the two of them he barely did a thing, but this woman just cleared the decks all by herself, meanwhile his own bouncers are just getting to the scene, unsure of what’s going on except the white woman clearly not dressed to be here is in the middle of a commotion, so of course they make for her and try to grab her.

“I wouldn’t do that!” he tries to warn and wave them off. 

But he quickly jumps between her and the bouncers, taking her by the hand and trying to pull her away and addressing the people in the club as he tries to shuffle her to the stairs leading up to his office. 

“Sorry about all that everybody, but it’s cool now, everyone lets have some fun!” 

He leans down to talk in her ear. “You come with me we need to talk..NOW!” 

At this point in her life, Jessica does very little to conceal her powers, and doesn’t much care who finds out about them. Short of Kilgrave, she isn’t worried about what will happen if she is seen using them, as she can easily kick most people’s ass. Seeing men push women around pushes her buttons hard, and she has had a few drinks too many to let it go.

Her vision narrows in on the men with knives coming towards the man she has been semi flirting with, and she starts to launch herself at them to stop him. Too late, the marks land…and do nothing but tear his shirt. Jessica stops, thrown, and blinks, convinced she must be far drunker than she thought. They had both stabbed with force, where the hell is the blood?

She starts to jerk back as the bouncers make a move to grab her, arms up and ready to detract herself however needed. Fuck if she is letting anyone she doesn’t know touch her. But the large not-bleeding man got in between them, addressing them as if he has some pull in the joint. Could he be the owner? Shit, if she gets herself arrested…she is not in the mood for a Trish lecture, let alone one from Hogarth.

When the man took her hand, Jessica flinched, almost hitting out at him, until he leaned in and spoke near her ear. Relaxing only marginally, pulling her hand out of his, she hissed back, “Yeah, I wouldn’t say one drink buys you time alone with me.”

Luke didn’t let go of her hand and continued to pull her to the stairs. He felt the need to assure her his intentions were not what she thought about him. 

“Look, I just want to talk, I’m not trying to get in your pants or anything. Trust me, I just want to talk to you. In fact I have to insist on it.” 

Remembering she just threw a guy across the room, he lets go of her hand. “Look I’m pretty sure nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to. But I have even better stuff upstairs in my private collection and it’s free .Just want a little conversation, that’s all.”

After letting her go he proceeds up the stairs and down a hallway into a very nice large office with art and sculptures all around the room, a large white leather couch sits to the right of a nice oak desk. There’s also a very large window overlooking the entire nightclub, and the room is quite soundproof so that normal conversations can be held in there. Luke stands in the doorway of his office holding the door open just in case she decides to take up his offer to talk.

Jessica looked at the man with some continued suspicion, but relaxed slightly when he showed enough intelligence not to keep holding her hand without her permission. That and his comment on having “better” drinks was enough to sway her. It wasn’t like she couldn’t kick his ass if she wanted, regardless of his size.

“Not a lot to say, but whatever.” Following him into the office, she paid little attention to its expensive, comfortable looking decor, nor does she move to take a seat. Standing just a couple of steps within the doorway, making sure she had access to it faster in case of a desire to exit, she crossed her arms over her chest, shifting her weight over hip.

“I have powers. That’s it. Not a hero, not a villain, just happen to have powers. Didn’t ask for them, didn’t want them, got them anyway. Any other questions?”

Luke looked at her and rolled his eyes. “Damn woman, can I ask a question?” Of course she did answer his biggest question but still let him ask first. “ Anyway, you didn’t want them? Were you born with them or did something happen?” 

As he’s asking this question he starts to take off his torn shirt, then grabs a letter opener off his desk. He places the tip against his chest right where his heart is and slams it into himself, the blade snaps and flies across the room. 

“I’m asking because we’re the same,” showing her what’s left of the letter opener, “someone did this to me against my will. So yeah I didn’t ask for it, I’m no hero, no villain, I’m just me doing what I can to keep Harlem from sliding back into hell. Now how about we just talk .I get the feeling you’re probably one of the few people on the planet that could get what happened to me and I’m probably the one person that you could talk to. Now can I offer you a drink and a seat?”

Jessica shrugged again, not uncrossing her arms. “You can ask, can’t promise I’ll answer.”  
She swallowed, a flicker of pained emotion crossing her eyes briefly at Luke’s question about her power and its origin. She disguised the look nearly as soon as it became visible, forcing a bored expression.  
“Car accident. Radioactive collision, or something. I never really cared enough to get the specifics, it happened, no point in knowing all the chemistry of how.”

But her expression shifted into wide eyed incredulity when Luke attempted to stab himself. She made a sputtering noise, starting to move forward to snatch the letter opener and make an effort at keeping him from committing suicide in front of her- only to see that there was no mark on his skin. Again. Something clicked then, about the failed stabbings, and now this…

“The fuck….well, shit, you can’t die, can you?”

Slowly she eased herself into the closest seat, then held out a hand for the offered drink. “Just so you know, you don’t know how much I’m capable of drinking, but it’s a lot more than my skinny ass looks like it can.”

She looked the man over more fully, then gave a small but genuine smile. He was only the second person she had ever met who also had super powers…and the first one not obviously evil. Maybe. And from the sounds of it, he knew what it was like to have hell forced upon him, too. If he was being for real on the forced powers, anyway.

“I’m Jessica. Jones.”

Luke laughs at her statement about him. “Honestly I don’t know if I can die or not.” Making his way around his des, he pulls a tee shirt out and puts it on.” As far as I know knives, bullets, explosions, fires I don’t feel them. I don’t know the rules, they didn’t exactly give me an instruction book when they did this to me in prison. Some crazy ass doctor wanted to play God I guess. Anyway, I’m gonna use this power to take care of my people, that’s why I took over this place…It’s Switzerland or Holy Ground. No gangs, no drug .Just music, booze, and fun. By the way thanks for helping with those clowns who broke the rules.” He starts laughing. “Damn sure they’ll never put hands on a woman like that again.” 

He steps closer…really close, only a few inches between them and holds out his hand. 

“Guess I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Luke. Luke Cage, and you are, beautiful? I meant what should I call you? But I’m cool calling you beautiful. Yeah, you’re the beautiful biker girl that can kick all kinds of ass.” 

He smiles down at her waiting for either a smile and a handshake or an uppercut. Either way worth it!

Jessica takes a not exactly subtle and admiring look at his pecs as Luke changed. Her eyes snapped up to his face, a crease forming between them at his mention of prison.

“Prison?” She had been arrested or close enough to it a few times, so not necessarily judging…yet. But why would someone give a criminal Luke’s size the inability to die if he wasn’t a villain?

She took his hand when offered, hers small and callused, swallowed up in his. Scoffing at his flattery, she rolled her eyes. She didn’t care one way or the other about her looks most days. “Not a biker, sure as shit not a babe, and not dumb enough to fall for the beautiful comments. But I can kick ass, all right.”

Luke knew the mention of prison is a 50/50 shot of scaring folks off, most just see a big black man and deserved to be there. But she hasn’t bolted from the room just yet so he decides to take a chance, the worst case she doesn’t believe him and leaves never to be seen again but if she stays…

“Look don’t get it twisted but I got sent to Seagate for some shit I didn’t do. I was framed but I’ve been cleared, so I’m no convict!. So don’t you dare judge me!”

He walks over to the bar and pours himself a drink. “I don’t even know why I bother with this stuff, it tastes awful and it takes gallons of it to even give me a buzz, but I still drink it. Some bad habits never go away do they? Anyway, it was in Seagate, I let some crazy doctor experiment on me but at the time I had no idea what he was doing to me. I can’t even find him to see if it can be undone. Do I even want it undone? My life would be so simple. Of course, I’d probably be dead 30 times over by all the clowns I’ve pissed off. Easy to chase off dealers when you’re bulletproof.”

Taking his drink over to the couch, he gestures to her to take a seat next to him. 

“Come on I don’t bite, plus you’ll probably kick my ass if I try anything. So sit, tell me about yourself, I mean I told you my name and a whole lot about my life and here I am and I don’t even know your name.”

Jessica listened closely to Luke’s explanation of his time in prison, watching his gestures and expression. As a private eye she knew that the way someone told a story was as important as what they said, and the way Luke told his read to her as sincere.

“Hey, I’m an antisocial asshole who drinks more than Jack Sparrow, I have no room to judge, but I do deal out sarcasm pretty strong.”

She hesitated, then took a seat next to him, taking a long swallow to finish off the drink in her hand. Relaxing beside him slightly with the drink as liquid confidence and ease, she let her leg brush his.

“You do know my name, but it’s so damn generic i don’t blame you for forgetting I said it. I’m Jessica Jones. What is it you want to know?”

Luke looked embarrassed but in his defense, he was probably staring at her when she said that. 

“Sorry about that, I’m suffering from a mild case of foot in mouth. It happens when on the rare times a woman gets under my skin like you do. By the way antisocial, I don’t think so. You’re just picky who’s worth your time or not. Which is why I’m trying my damnest to be worthy of your time right now. So be honest, have I at least earned dinner? There is a spot with some banging hot dogs and if you slip the guy a 20 he’s got cold beer on the down-low.”

Luke doesn’t waste his time these days on women he doesn’t see something special in and for him that’s no cheesy line, he means what he says, Jessica was beautiful, powerful and intelligent, rare qualities in women these days.

Jessica smirked, trying to look unaffected, but shifted with slight discomfort all the same, twitching slightly when her leg brushed Luke’s again. She could feel the bulk of his muscle beneath his pants and felt a flush of attraction that surprised her. Truthfully, she didn’t know how to respond anymore to someone decent who was truly interested in her. They wouldn’t be, in her opinion, if they actually knew her.

“Are you asking me on a date?” She laughed, not at Luke, but at what she thought of as a ridiculous circumstance. “You say that because you obviously don’t know me. I have one friend, one, and that’s my adoptive sister, mostly because she refuses to butt out of my life no matter how hard I push.”

She dropped her eyes, then looked at him squarely. “I’m not being coy or self conscious, just honest. I would make a shitty date and a shittier girlfriend. I haven’t been on a date that counted in…Jesus, like two years. I’m not some hot super hero because I can throw people around. I’m fucked up, ok?”

Surely he wouldn’t be interested after that. But even as she said it, she was already disappointed at the polite goodbye she anticipated.

Not buying her reason for not wanting to go out with him, he cocks an eyebrow at her. “Are you being serious right now? Do you think that you being damaged is going to scare me off? Look if you don’t want to go out with me just say it. But don’t you dare say some bullshit like that. You think you don’t deserve to be happy? Do you think you’re so damaged that nobody would want you?”   
He sighs than leans back from her.

“You’re right, I don’t know you, but I’m willing to put in the time. But I’m willing to bet my life you’re not damaged or broken. You’re a puzzle piece looking for a matching piece, one that fits you just right.” He leans back in and smiles. “Besides I’m only talking about a couple dozen hot dogs. Don’t worry I was gonna give you one or two, the rest are all mine…Got to feed the furnace right?”

He had a point. She didn’t think she didn’t deserve to be happy, she just didn’t think it possible. And she certainly didn’t think she could make someone else happy. But he was damn insistent, and she didn’t mind a little more time with the one apparently not evil other super powered person she ever met.

Jessica hesitated, then let out a short breath. With a nod, she stood, stretching enough to pop her back. “Guess I could eat.”


	2. Chapter 2

Jessica kept expecting to wake up, any moment. After all, the fact that she was on a date, more or less, with a guy, of her own free will, was incredible enough it seemed more likely to be an alcohol induced hallucination. The fact that the guy in question was sober, respectful, and seriously hot made it even less likely. And the fact that he had super powers?

Yeah, this definitely seemed unreal.

And the weirdest part? As she sat beside him at the establishment of his choice, sharing an order of hot dogs and feeling enough of a buzz from her night’s drinking to feel closer to good than she could remember in a very long while, she was actually smiling at him, once in a while. Her, Jessica Jones. Smiling.

Fuck, this had to be a very long dream.

After ordering a dozen hotdogs and a couple of beers, Luke led Jessica to a stoop nearby the hot dog stand. He sat down on the steps, reached in the bag and handed Jessica a hot dog, then smirked at her as he tried to hide the rest of the bag from her.

“That’s all you get, the rest is mine.” 

He stuck his tongue out his tongue at her before shoving a hot dog in his mouth. The whole thing disappeared as if he just inhaled it. Luke grinned at her before putting the bag between them. For some reason he hadn’t notice the camera slung over her shoulder until he brushed against it with his hand then.

“What’s with the camera? You a photojournalist or something?” he asked, taking a drink from his beer and grabbing another hot dog.

Jessica sat next to Luke on the stoop on the step below him, leaving a slight distance between them. If she shifted slightly, she would be leaning into his space. And weirdly enough, she was kind of tempted too. Fuck she must need to get laid or something, because otherwise the level of attraction was pathetic.

Rolling her eyes at Luke’s exaggeratedly silly eating and comments, she gave his shoulder a shove, nevertheless fighting another smile. She took a bite of her own hot dog, noting to herself with appreciation that it really was damn good, before responding to his question.

“No, private investigator. Sounds cooler than it normally is. Basically boils down to I stalk cheating lovers, usually.”

Her eyes focus on Luke’s lips, which now are smeared with ketchup. “You know, your teeth exist for a reason. You actually don’t have to let food just slide down your throat to your stomach whole.”

She suppressed her desire to reach up to wipe his skin herself, judging the impulse as lame and sappy. Instead she took a long pull on her own beer, then lightly nudged her foot against his. “Gotta ask. Once you figured out about your skin, how many different ways did you test out how the extent of the impenetrable aspect?”

“Oh you got jokes,” he laughed. “Didn’t really, people just kept shooting at me and I didn’t die. It’s not just my skin though. I’m not super strong but I’m stronger even for a man my size, not flipping cars but I’ve ripped one off like it was paper, I can toss tools around and have to pull my punches so I don’t accidentally kill someone. But from what I can tell you’re on a whole different level compared to me.” He takes another drink from his beer. “So a PI, so I take it you were working a case in my club tonight? Yeah I can see that. Dark club in Harlem, doubt anyone would think they get caught in there. Well whoever you were following deserves what they get!”

“Not much of a joker, just speak sarcasm as a first language. My sister says it’s a defense thing, I call it a natural gift.”

Her eyebrows rose as Luke described his strength. She looked him up and down, assessing. “You might be overestimating me. I don’t know if I’m as strong as you or just way too strong for my size. I can jump up onto buildings too. No flying, but I can sort of control how I land when I fall. If I’m sober enough.”

She shrugged, indifferent on his remark about her client. “Take it you’ve been cheated on. Have to ask though, who the hell do you hang out with to make people use you for target practice so much?”

Luke hasn’t really pushed his powers to their limits yet, till now the biggest feat he can think of was containing an exploding grenade in his hands to protect his friend Danny from the time they took down a drug house.

Luke nodded at her. “Yeah but haven’t we all been betrayed like that? But what’s worst is being the other man and not even knowing about it.” 

He decides to change the subject. “Did you always want to be a PI? Dreams of being Sherlock Holmes with legs that I bet could stop traffic? By the way, you gonna let me know if any of these subtle compliments are working well enough for me to kiss you, or do I have to pull out the big guns..1001 corny jokes. For example, What do you call a pig that knows karate? A Pork Chop.” 

He grins at her. ”See, corny, and there is the only way to stop me now.”

Betrayal was definitely something Jessica knew about. From being cheated on, yeah, but more so because of people hurting or disappointing her. She didn’t expound on this though, glad when Luke changed the subject.

“PI is more like what seemed practical. I never really had a dream, I’m not exactly ambitious. Going through adolescence with Patsy Walker is enough to kill any ambition I might have summoned up, believe me.”

She blinked when Luke mentioned wanting to kiss her, disbelieving, but hardly unwilling. Fuck, if he was still blind and deaf enough to be attracted to her, she guessed that was his problem, and she had drunk enough by now to feel less self sacrificing.

“Fuck it, I never have been good at keeping people safe.”

She stood abruptly, facing him, and ignoring his lame joke, reached out one slightly unsteady hand, letting it clamp around his shoulder. She let her hand exert some pressure, anchoring herself, then taking a quick breath and closing her eyes, ignoring her inner critical and cynical voice, tilted her face up to his, leaning up to meet his lips with hers.

Luke leaned in to kiss her back, sliding his arm around her waist and holding her tightly. She smelled amazing despite the alcohol on her tongue, and her kiss was damn near addictive. He pulls back to take a breath. 

"Was it my joke that good?" He slips his other arm around her to kiss her again, hoping the first one wasn't a fluke because dammit if kissing her wasn't addictive and he was already hooked.

His lips were full for a man’s, firm, and Jessica’s heart began to pound in her chest. She tasted hot dog mingled with beer on his tongue and smelled his after shave, a very pleasant scent that only upped her pleasure. Luke’s arm around her waist was amazingly strong and steady, making her feel small but not weak in a way she sort of liked.

Pressing slightly closer against him, she pinched his bicep lightly, smirking. “Your jokes are so corny they need butter and salt. But I’ll let it slide. Stop trying so hard.”

“You make a statement like that and I’m the corny one?? Oh hell naw,” Luke scoffed, moving some hair to the side so he can see Jessica’s face clearly. “Point taken though, I’ll dial it back a little. ” 

He reluctantly loosens his arms around her waist. “It’s late, I should take you home. Wait, sorry, totally creepy thing to say. Just because I kissed you shouldn’t mean you’re gonna tell me where you live. I knew it was the wrong thing to say even as the words were coming out my mouth.”

Jessica has always felt self conscious about her face being too open. She has always kept her hair long and loose, even before Kilgrave. Now she flinchd on instinct away from Luke’s gesture, not wanting his hand to come in contact with the self inflicted, Kilgrave directed scar behind her ear. Luke’s remark about taking her home sparked another sarcastic lap. Although she had moved from his hand at her head, she missed his touch when he moved his arms from around her. 

“My home has had the door broken about three times in three months. I’m hardly concerned about you being a threat to my safety. My office is my home.”

A little shocked and confused by what she’s saying, of course, he’s no threat to her, he can feel his attraction for her getting stronger by the second and he thinks the feeling is mutual. But to get the ok to take her home is an unexpected win for the good guys in his book. 

“Jessica Jones, I need you to say the words out loud, yes or no, do you want me to take you home…and stay with you? Because I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I can call a car and have it take you home with or without me, and if it’s without me, that’s ok, we can go as fast or as slow as you want as long as I get to see you again.” 

Luke pulled her in close again and kissed her lips, then lifted his head so she can see his sincere eyes. “I want to see you again no matter what.”

It’s been a long time since he’s wanted a woman so badly. Man if Danny could see how crazy he was for a woman he just met, there would be so much teasing. Still he may bring it up in one of their future training sessions. Luke has been getting Danny to teach him some Martial Arts to help him channel some of his power so that he doesn’t punch someone’s head off. Funny, learning to hold back a punch from a guy that can literally punch a hole in a tank. 

Yeah, Danny is gonna laugh his ass off. But so what as long as he can see Jessica again, that is all that matters.

Jessica stilled, considering. It had been a long time since she slept with anyone when not in a blackout drinking binge, let alone someone she might actually want to see the next day. The thought was seductive and scary all at once. She definitely wanted more time with Luke, and yeah, the desire to have sex with him was there too. But she was pretty damn positive she would somehow show him who she “really” was. Then again, screw it. She warned the man, whose fault was It if he didn’t believe her? 

The sincerity and warmth in Luke’s eyes killed her. He really thought she was the kind of person who deserved the gentleman act. Trish would squeal and plan weddings if she could see this. Taking a slow breath, she made herself meet his eyes. 

“Take me home. See my shithole of a so called home. Then we can see what happens.”

Luke smile at her answer and quickly took out his phone to order a car, lucky for him it only took a couple of minutes to reach them. He opens the door for her to get in and follows her in, putting an arm around her and pulled her close to him.

After a bit of a drive from Harlem into Hell’s Kitchen, they pull up to her building, he holds Jessica’s hand to help her out the car. 

“Hey have you ever seen the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen,” he asked her, referring to DareDevil. “Yeah I thought Harlem had some craziness going on but dude jumping from rooftops beating the crap out of folks is something else. Wow, then again, I just realized I have no room to talk after the year I’ve had.”

Standing in front of the building he stands next to her, still holding her hand. “Well I got you home safe and sound.”

Jessica is amazed at her own self, letting the guy hold her hand, letting him treat her like some sort of lady…like Trish, or someone far more like her than Jessica. Still, she lets him, equally enjoying and embarrassed by the pleasure she gets from his touch. She stays quiet, very aware of his presence near her in the car and his body heat. As they pull up to her apartment, she nods in response to his comment about Daredevil. 

“Yeah he is ridiculous, isn’t he like some Devil impersonator too? But if you think that’s bad you should have seen the get up my sister wanted me to dress in. And she wanted me to call myself Jewel. Fucking Jewel! Might as well have been Glitter Stripper Bambi.“ 

She leads Luke into the building, taking the stairs to her floor. Her front door has cardboard taped over its obviously broken window and she nods toward it sarcastically. 

"Safety is overrated.” As she unlocks the door and leads him in, she stands almost in defiance of the mess inside. Empty alcohol bottles are scattered about, some clothes are on the couch and table, and her home is clearly used as an office and crash place more than a home, bare of decor or many personal belongings. “Impressive, right?”

Luke looked around her place, yeah it’s no five-star hotel, but hell he’s been sleeping on the couch in his office at the club. At least she has a bed. 

“Did you miss the part about me being in prison? I’ve been in worst besides, the only view I’m interested in is you.” 

He pulls her into him and kisses her deeply, his hands start around her waist and gradually move down cuffing her butt tightly, moving his lips from hers down to her neck and ears, each kiss becoming more and more intense as he tastes her skin and inhaled the smell of her hair. She puts on such a tough not giving a shit attitude, but she’s still soft and warm, still a woman, an intoxicating woman at that. 

Luke lets go of her butt to free up his hands, pulling off his jacket and then the shirt underneath it, every muscle couldn’t help but flex in front of her. He looks at her and smiles, moving his hands towards her jacket, slowly sliding it off her shoulders until it finally falls to the floor. He started to move to lift her shirt off but stops himself, he would rather see her do that on her own. Instead, he leans against the wall with his arms crossed and watches her. 

“It’s your move, Jessica.”

Right, prison. Somehow that seemed unimportant, especially given she should have gone herself a time or too. And Luke, Jessica can sense, is a decent man, prison time or not. Far more so than any guy she would normally even hit on, let alone take home.

His hands are huge on her narrow waist, nearly spanning its full diameter, and her stomach muscles flex against him in response. She kisses back with equal intensity, pushing herself into him almost in a grind in response. His kisses over her neck and ear cause her to still, her heart speeding wildly in response, and she seizes a fistful of his shirt, nearly ripping it as she dug her fingers into the muscle of his shoulder.

She wouldn’t have thought the man could turn her on much more until he pulled away to remove his shirt. She shivered, already wanting him back in contact with her, missing the solid heat of his body setting hers aflame inside. Fuck, he looked even better with his shirt off, his physique would look fake if it wasn’t across from her, and if she hadn’t just felt it up close.

When he removed her jacket, gently and carefully as though she were a delicate being rather than the super powered rough mess of a human that she was, something flickered over her eyes, a softness she tried hard to force back with a visible intake of breath.

She expected him to continue undressing her. Any guy with a libido would once he got started. But instead he stepped back, giving her that control, the say in how and when she made the choice of sexual actions.

For a moment Jessica was afraid she would cry out of sheer disbelieving relief. She suspected her eyes might have shimmered briefly. But then the feeling was shoved back down, and she shook her hair behind her shoulders and tore her shirt off, throwing it over her shoulder without looking to see where it landed. She was pretty sure she tore a hook of her bra as she stripped it off with her pants, but didn’t give a damn. Clad only in faded blue bikini underwear, she lunged forward, grasping for Luke again in a hard kiss as she pressed her body into his.

Luke caught himself staring at her body, only snapping out of it when she pressed against him and began kissing him. He moved his hands back around her waist then back on her butt, squeezing it tightly while kissing her back, then finally he reached down behind her thighs, lifting her off the floor so that the her legs come around him. He walked with her towards her desk, sitting her down on it, pulling away to unbuckle his belt. Then he knelt down, kissing her from her neck and shoulders finally down to her breast then her stomach. Kicking his pants across the room, he goes down to his knees, reaching for her panties and sliding them off, pushing her legs wide open. Luke buries his face between her legs, licking and kissing her, enjoying every bit of her sweetness. He slowly moves back up, kissing his way back up the way he came until he’s back at her lips. 

“Sweet Chrismas! You’re beautiful”

Jessica sucks in her breath as Luke kissed and worked his tongue between her legs, her arousal spiking and ebbing in sharp peaks through her core. She isn’t one for talk during sex and shuts him up with a forceful kiss, biting down briefly on his lip. Her hands come down to his pants and she pushes them down. Still sitting on the desk, she uses his shoulders to push him back enough for her to stand, wanting the control. She pushes him back against the wall, hard enough that his solid mass and her strength make it shudder slightly, as though it was considering cracking. Then she kissed her way down his abdomen to his groin, taking him first into her hand, then into her mouth.

When she took him into mouth it was like a lightning bolt shot through him, he swelled and throbbed with every sensation of her tongue. She could devour him and he would happily give him. Luke had plenty of stamina when it came to sex but dammit she was already pushing him to cumming, the feeling is so good he loses control and slams his hand into the wall behind him putting a gapping hole in it. Unable to hold back any more he lifts her up to her feet then scooping up Into his arms he carries her to her bed room to her bed, laying on her back he hovers over her hungrier, pushing her legs open wide, he kisses deeply once more before slowly pushing himself inside.

Luke isn’t much on cussing but he couldn’t help himself. 

“Fuuck!” 

That’s the only word that he could think of when he felt how warm and wet she was as she slowly surrounded his manhood, ever so slowly he began to move in and out of her each time going deeper and harder. Until he was finally all the way inside her with each stroke, he stared down at her beautiful eyes, he wanted to enjoy every inch of her body, he wanted all of her. What da hell is going on, he thinks to himself, why is she affecting me this way? 

But as another wave of pleasure hits him he quickly loses himself in her. Three times before morning he lost himself inside her. And for the first time in a year he felt content.

They had taken each other one way or another five times by morning, and yet Jessica felt more awake and alive than she had in at least two years. She had found herself increasingly excited and turned on by how forceful she could be with Luke, how she didn’t have to check her strength or hold back. Sex with Luke was neither anonymous and numbing as it was with others nor terrifying and beyond her control like Kilgrave. It felt right, like she had never before understood what sex could be. Lying beside him, catching her breath and slick with sweat, Jessica let a small smile curve her lips. She was not one for overnights, but she was in no mood to boot him out the door now.

Luke laid there exhausted, this part is the awkward part. Surely by now, after all the energy they’ve burned, any thought of getting up would be difficult, so he really hopes she doesn’t say “thanks now get out.”

But still, this woman could keep up with him, he didn’t have to hope he didn’t break her. So this is what sex with another super is like….amazing. Still this awkward silence is unbearable. 

“So that just happened…Multiple times. Sooooo now what should we do?”

Jessica summoned the energy to smirk, turning her head towards him. She stared to make a sarcastic comment, then stopped, pressing her lips together briefly. Her voice is uncertain when she answers. 

“I have no idea.” 

It isn’t like they are dating. But hell, she feels damn reluctant for him to go.

Pretty much what he thought, there has to be some kind of connection here, otherwise wouldn’t she tell him to leave? From how she talks there is no chance she would have any trouble kicking him out of bed and going about her business if she wanted to. 

“Well you got anything to do today? If not we could hang out? Maybe I could watch you do your P.I thing? In the meantime I’m gonna get us some coffee and bagels.” 

He moves to the edge of the bed and stands up, forgetting his clothes are in the other room. Luke shows no shame getting up naked and walking to get them. Shame has long left the building since they explored every inch of each other last night.

Jessica’s plan for the day had been nonexistent. Normally she would have drank herself into a state where she could either have a restless sleep or else be drunk enough she could stay up another 24 hours with minimal flashbacks. That seems a bit much to explain so instead she shrugs. 

“My day wasn’t planned out. And my PI "thing” is mostly boring computer research in day, the stake out shit is mostly by night. But I guess you can hang out. If you want.“ 

She watches Lukes naked body with no less attraction as Luke moved across the room to retrieve his clothes, continuing to drink in every motion. Even after abundant evidence to the contrary it was so insane to think of this guy as being reality.

He walked back into the room after pulling his pants on, still shirtless. Sitting on the bed next to her, he gently kisses her on the cheek. 

“I saw that, Jessica Jones, you were looking at me like a pork chop.” Grinning at her, Luke took his hand in hers. “Actually I need to get back to my place and change clothes, but how about you be my guest tonight? Come hang out, we can drink a little, dance a little…play a little.”

Jessica scoffed, rolling her eyes, but didn’t flinch from the kiss or remove her hands from his, to her own continued surprise. 

“Pork chop? You mean you grade yourself a cut above hot dogs?” 

She hesitated for a few moments at Luke’s invitation, not because she doesn’t want to accept, but because she isn’t sure what it may mean for her, now or later, to make this a two or possibly more time thing. She is still damn sure she will find a way for this to crash and burn, Amazing sex or not. And if it happens later rather than sooner, when the surface feelings she has now possibly would be beyond just attraction, it would hurt that much more. 

But looking at Luke, letting him hold her hands, his warm touch, echoing in the warmth of his eyes, won’t let her say no. 

“Ok…but seems like you haven’t clued in yet, I’m not someone who typically stops at drinking "a little.””

Luke laughs out loud. “Well it’s a good thing you’re with someone that owns a club with a well stocked bar.” 

In the back of his mind her drinking is a bit of a concern, but he doesn’t know her life enough to pass any kind of judgment on her or anyone else. 

“But if you’re gonna come to a club in Harlem you probably want to change…….nothing." He smiles at her again. “I think you’re damn near perfect and who knows, if something pops off again I might put you on payroll.”

He tugs the sheets away, exposing her body.

“ Just wanted to take in the view one more time before I go. By the way I’ll write down my number and leave on your desk before I go.” Standing, he kisses her one more time before pulling on his shirt. “You have a good day and I’ll see you tonight about 11PM. I would say be careful but let’s be real, I pity any fool that pisses you off.” 

Slowly Luke walks out the room and finally out the door.

Damn near perfect? This man was delusional and obviously not about to be dissuaded otherwise by her despite her efforts. Jessica let herself briefly entertained entertain the notion of a job at Luke’s nightclub, smirking at the mental image of herself as the white bodyguard or bouncer shock the hell out of Club goers who would hardly expect that out of her. Maybe it wasn’t a completely horrible idea. Couldn’t be much worse than some of the private eye shit she ended up doing sometimes. 

When Luke looked at her naked body again, she swatted playfully at his hand but trying to suppress her smile as he leaned in to kiss her, kissing him back.

“Careful isn’t something I’m much familiar with or interested in. Bye.” 

She doesn’t tell him she will meet him, but she is already thinking about it. When Luke leaves, shutting the door after himself, Jessica flops back in bed and shuts her eyes, taking a deep breath. Somehow her anxiety overWhat she was feeling and the events of the night overall hadn’t fully settled in until after Luke was gone. Now with no distractions but her own thoughts she wondered what the hell she was getting herself into with this. Didn’t she know better by now than to even try for anything more than a drunken one-night stand?


	3. Chapter 3

Jessica wanted to forget her night with Luke.

It would make things so much easier, so much less complicated. So much less dangerous, both for her own ability to continue in a state of emotional numbness and for Luke’s own well-being. Historically, people in Jessica’s life that she cared about tended not to fare too well for very long. It was fairly obvious to her that she had some sort of dark aura or weird curse around herself, deflecting misery and suffering onto everyone who bothered to spend extended time with her.

The last thing she needed, or that anyone else needed, was to become a regular in Jessica Jones’s life.

But telling herself to forget about it, to lose Luke’s number and ignore his invitation, was far simpler to think about than follow through on. Even as she attempted to sleep- unsuccessfully- slogged through some research on her open cases, and dulled the edges of her emotions with her usual daily intake of booze, Jessica’s mind still flitted back frequently to Luke. His warm eyes, meeting hers, looking at her without judgment, with admiration and approval of her, even before he saw her naked. His genuine, open smile, his lips, firm and full on hers. His arms pulling her in, swallowing her up in his embrace. And his body- damn, his body.

She shouldn’t even consider thinking she could actually have something with a guy like him. As much as he might say otherwise, he didn’t really know her, not the first thing about her that mattered. And even if she told him- and she had, multiple times- about just what kind of person she really was, he couldn’t really understand it until he saw it out for himself. Jessica couldn’t believe he would really continue to want her, once he really saw her as she was, without physical attraction and admiration for her physical strength skewing his vision.

She should blow him off now, before it hurt too much and was too hard to do it later. It was to spare herself as much as to spare him.

And yet she couldn’t. Just before 11, she found herself catching an Uber up to Harlem to his nightclub again and slinking, head down, eyes up, through the doors. She had made no more effort tonight with her appearance than she had yesterday, but if Luke thought he wanted her, he was going to see how she was every day, not some dolled up version.

88  
Up in Luke’s office, he had received an unexpected visit from his best friend, Danny Rand, with an unusual plead for some backup.

“You’re lying!” Luke maintained, shaking his head. “How you gonna sit there and lie to me like that.”

“ I swear to God, they’re real,” Danny protested.

Luke looks at Danny with playful disbelief. “So you’re telling me that there are grown ass folks running around Manhattan in black pajamas? And they’re called The Hand...Grown ass folks??”

“Yes, I swear it’s true,” Danny said patiently. “ They’re an ancient sect of Ninja and they are into everything, drugs, weapons, human trafficking, and they’re operating out of Manhattan. Luke, I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

Luke was still skeptical. “Really, so “Ninjas” exist...In New York?”

“ You have unbreakable skin,” Danny pointed out. “I have a glowing fist, and from what you told me, your new girlfriend can throw grown men across the room with one hand. But ninja is too hard to believe?”

Luke stands in front of the window overlooking the club. By luck or by purpose he notices Jessica as she walks in. Picking up his walkie, he calls down to the floor to ask someone to escort her up to his office.

Turning back to Danny, he said, “Fine, whatever you need from me, consider me there.”

“Thank you,” Danny nodded in appreciation. “ I’ll call you with a when and where we strike, but I have to warn you there might be blowback on you and your club.”

“You said they’re selling people,” Luke said darkly, shaking his head. “You hurt someone in my city, I’m the blowback you get! I got yo back brother! Call me later.”

Danny stands up and walks up to Luke, and after a quick fist bump walks out and down the stairs. He smiles as he passes a waitress and a pretty brunette.

When a man she does not recognize stops Jessica at the door of the club, addressing her by name, she freezes, on the edge of a panic attack. For a few moments she is thrust into instinctive flashback of the days in which Kilgrave could and did send out personal messengers after her with instructed actions to carry out against her. Even as she remembers that no, Kilgrave is gone, she cannot stop herself from hearing his voice in the back of her mind, and she feels cold from head to toe.

When the man, noticing her disturbed reaction, quickly explains Luke sent him to bring her to his office, Jessica nods tightly, forcing herself to breathe, to follow him with ample space that she can keep from touching. She hasn’t entirely shaken off her instinctive reaction, though, and is still paler even than usual as her guide stops her by Luke’s office door.

Luke turns to Jessica as she enters the room, greeting her with a warm smile and hug. He was unsure if he should or could kiss her again. It seemed that for her, last night was one and done, and this morning could have her just wanting to leave. But then again if she was done with him why is she here? 

“Jessica. I’m glad you came out. ” He moves away, taking her hand and leading her to the window that overlooks the packed club. “So did you come to take me up on the job, or did you just want to see me again as much as I wanted to see you?”

Jessica was unused to getting or giving hugs. She tolerated them from Trish but rarely returned them and almost never initiated. Affection of that level felt dangerous, not at risk of being hurt physically, but emotionally. She expected to tense at Luke’s embrace after her fighting off the panic attack but instead surprised herself by how it seemed to soothe. She was surprised too with how genuinely enthused he seemed to see her.

"You asked me to come, I’m here. Surprised?”

“Surprised, no. I’m just happy to see you.” Luke turned his body to face her. “Look I can tell you have some hesitation about what’s going on here. I’m gonna be flat out with you. I like your vibe, I like you’re blunt, and I like your independence. Look, our lives are nothing but puzzles and we’re looking for the piece that completes it.” 

Slowly he traced his finger along her cheek, watching closely for an indication that she wanted him to stop. “Let’s take things at your pace, start or stop where you want and get to know each other beyond the earth shattering, knees buckling marathon sex.” 

Luke leaned in to kiss her, moving his hands around her waist. “What do you think? Hang out, get to know each other? Drink my good bourbon.”

Jessica’s tension softened as Luke touched her cheek, and she shifted more into his hand, her eyes softening. This is maybe the third time he has reassured her of this, but she still needs to hear it.

“I think you’re the only person who says that I believe means it,” she said quietly. Her lips twitched at his reference to their sex. “Considering how damn huge you are, me buckling your knees is an accomplishment.” 

She returned his kiss, leaning into his hands, and nodded, relaxing a little more. “I never say no to bourbon.”

“I get the feeling I’m getting the same attitude about you. Why don’t you take a seat, I’ll grab some glasses.” 

After grabbing a bottle and 2 glasses he sits on the couch. “I have an idea, we can ask each other questions. The catch is if you don’t answer, you have to drink. And since it’s my place and my booze I ask first. I’ll make it easy on you too. What’s your favorite color?” 

Luke poured two glasses then handed one to her and took the other, sitting back and watching her.

Jessica sat next to Luke, accepting the glass offered to her. She smirked at his suggestion of a game but didn’t protest. It did sound like less pressure than a normal date conversation. Still, she couldn’t resist needling him. 

“What are we, a sorority? What, no dares to prank call our crush or streak? Guess that’s easy enough. So if I answer everything I can’t drink? Guess I better keep some things a mystery, then.” 

She took a swallow of her drink even as she replied. “Black. Obviously. Hm…favorite movie?”

Luke shrugged his shoulders, grinning. “Hey, far be it from me to stop you from getting naked and running around.” 

He adjusted himself so he was close as possible without her actually being in his lap. “My favorite movie, that’s easy. The Big Red One…Lee Marvin and Mark Hamill set during the invasion of Normandy. Hmmmm let’s see, what is your favorite place to visit, either again or for the first time?”

Jessica noted his closer position and her smirk deepened. “What, you aren’t going for the subtle yawn, stretch, and casually slide your arm around me trick you men think women don’t recognize?”

Not having heard of his movie, she shrugged. “Sounds old. And geeky.” 

At his question she is silent for a moment, her face somewhat closed off. She again takes a drink even as she answers. “Used to be the state fair. Don’t have one now. Uh…any siblings?” 

Then she made a face, Shaking her head. “No, lame. How old were you the first time you had sex.”

Luke took a drink, not really wanting to get into how his half brother betrayed and framed him. 

“It’s old for sure but not geeky! If you want we could go to Coney Island or Atlantic City, never been to either place myself. I just need to help my friend with something and then if you want we could go. Anyway my turn...Jessica Jones, tell me what you like about me.”

Jessica was surprised that Luke drank to what had seemed a fairly innocuous question about siblings- or was it the sex question he didn’t want to answer? Interesting. She flushed slightly at his question about what she liked about him and debated to self whether to answer. Finally she took a drink instead, mentally irritated at herself for what she saw as her cowardice in not answering. She tried to think of a question for Luke, then surprised herself by answering him anyway.

“You seem…honest. Patient. Like… a good person, genuinely. There are damn few of those out there anymore. And, uh…” She exhaled, eyes flitting away, “obviously the physical attraction is there. There’s other stuff too but shit, I think that’s enough without writing you a poem or something.” 

Her glass now empty despite having answered everything asked, she fidgeted slightly, thinking of another question for Luke. “What is something that really pisses you off?” 

Luke’s smile shrinks a little. “What pisses me off, well that’s a good way to bring down the mood.” 

He sighs while he thinks. “Well we kind of discussed I hate cheaters. If you’re not happy, be honest and move on. I don’t cheat, ever! But what really pisses me off are predators that prey on innocents and bring their crap into Harlem!” 

His voice rises a little but he quickly catches himself. “Sorry, my buddy mentioned something to me before you got here.”

Jessica’s lips quirked, but her eyes were serious. “Noted. Cheaters are what keep me in business, but can’t say I’m a fan.“ 

She raised her eyebrows at his outburst, bumping her shoulder lightly into his and then letting it stay against him, touching. "So are you like that weird devil man, you do superhero shit? Rogue crime fighting or whatever?”

“It’s not even a Harlem problem but it still pisses me off a little. Hey, you probably passed my friend on the way up. Anyway my turn, I’ll lighten things up again. What’s your favorite song? Mine is “Can you stand the rain.” It’s about accepting a relationship, the good and the bad.”

“You’re kind of a sap, huh? I bet you fanboy over John Legend.” 

But Jessica is gentle with the sarcasm. She shrugs, noncommittal when it comes to music. 

“I don’t have a favorite song exactly but I’d go to a Pink concert. The woman says what she thinks, takes no prisoners. Hm…” She paused, wondering if this was too heavy a question, but went for it since he had hinted so strongly. “Have you been cheated on?”

“Sap? New Edition is still cool. Pink huh? Figured you for more of a Joan Jett kind of woman. Anyway yeah I’ve been cheated on, but I’ll spare you the details. Seriously it’s too soon for me to lay that hornet’s nest in your lap. ” 

His glass is empty to so he refills both. 

“You got a little heavy with that last one so turnabout is fair play. Am I the first person you spent this much time with? I get the feeling you don’t date or put yourself out there too much.”

“Why Joan Jett, the resemblance? She’s a little old school, but all right, I can listen to her.” Jessica looked him up and down, assessing his age. “How old are you anyway?”

Accepting the refill and taking a long swallow, she settled back, tensing slightly at his question. She took a long swallow of the drink, then another before answering.

“I don’t. Date much. There was someone, once, when I was younger. He’s…gone.” Murdered, but Jessica didn’t specify. “Then there was…someone pretty fucked up, but that was NOT fucking dating. So no. Don’t put myself out much. Hasnt been a smart idea, historically.“

Luke listened to her answer intently. He answers was short but still shared a lot of information. “I see, sorry didn’t mean to dig so deeply. You didn’t ask me anything. Do you need a break or something?”

Jessica took a breath, briefly shook. It was difficult still to reference Kilgrave; it made her sick to say his name aloud. Thinking of Sterling, her old boyfriend, was also difficult but easier to push down emotions about. Not answering Luke, not wanting him to read her emotions but afraid he might, she slammed back the remainder of her drink and poured another. Finally she said, “I did ask you something. I asked how old you are.”

“Wait that was a real question? I thought that was sarcastic? Because of my taste in music and movies? I’m 39, is that an issue for you? I can’t really do anything about that.” Luke raised an eyebrow, taking another drink. “Anyway my turn again. Do you like kids, ever think about having them yourself?”

“No, just curious. I’m 31, no big deal. Just was wondering if you’re secretly 78 or something, and just don’t look it. Since you might not be able to die.” 

At Luke’s question, Jessica’s fingers tightened around her glass. She snorts, shaking her head. “I like kids all right, but I would be a really fucked up mother, I don’t think my genes need replicated.”

Taking another drink, feeling slightly more at ease now that she’s already had several, she meets Luke’s eyes. “What do you most want to know about me?”

Luke smiles again, moving close enough to kiss her lips before answering.

“I’m gonna change that one up a little. What I like about you, well that’s easy. I like your hesitation to smile at me even when you want to. I like the way you make me feel when you look at me. I like your confidence and independence, I like your beautiful eyes, your soft lips, the way you taste, the way you feel when in my arms. I like that you’re beautiful and strong.”

Luke kisses her again. “Of course this is only our second meeting, so I’m betting there will be more to that list that I’ll learn about you. So right now, I don’t want to know anything you aren’t ready to tell me. We shouldn’t try to learn everything in one night especially drinking this much. We’ll probably just forget it all.”

Jessica had mildly braced herself for whatever Luke might want to hear and how difficult it might be to answer. But the guy is smooth, almost too much so. Nevertheless his answer is reassuring, and she smiles, her hand reaching up to tentatively brush his cheek. She has no idea how to respond to such an abundance of compliments, so just kisses him back. Still, her mouth always seems to get ahead of herself. 

“It takes a lot more drinking than this for me to black out. I don’t use the "alcoholic” word but let’s say my tolerance is high and my self limiting is pretty limited.“ 

She watched him closely after this, waiting for his reaction. Strangely enough, she has actually drank far less than she would have expected tonight, less than she would have in her office alone.

Luke smirks at her. “Nice to know a night with me is unforgettable, but the bottle is not even half way finished so the night is still young.” 

He thinks about what she said about her tolerance. “Do you think it’s because of your powers that gives you such a high tolerance? Is it just alcohol or all things that could hinder you?”

Jessica snorted, rolling her eyes. “Are you really that optimistic or you just want me to spell things out? Tolerance has nothing to do with my powers. I get drunk, I can get drunk as much as anyone can. I have high tolerance because I’m a goddamn alcoholic, okay?” 

Her voice is rough, and she looks away, jaw clinched, but her anger is at herself, not Luke. “My brand of strength isn’t the kind that means anything. I didn’t earn it.”

“Hey chill, don’t bite my head off. I was just curious. Not a lot of us around to reference this kind of stuff, I was just curious because for me, my body doesn’t absorb alcohol like normal people. Probably take 3 or 4 bottles before it hits me.” Noticing the tension in her face, he made a reassuring gesture. “I get it. I didn’t ask for mine either, damn sure didn’t earn them. I’m just the giant freak that survived some crazy ass experiment.”

Jessica is still facing away from him, her back taut with tension, mingled with dread. When Luke doesn’t stammer some sort of apology and make his excuses to show her out, she turns her head slightly, looking towards rather than at his eyes. 

“That’s it? I tell you I’m an alcoholic and you STILL think no big deal? Are you a saint or just a masochist?” 

She really is starting to wonder. 

“What would it take for you to throw up your hands and say yep, this woman is far too crazy, no sex is worth all that walking catastrophe in skin?“ 

She looked at him more closely, the question genuine rather than as rude as it sounds. "Is there something wrong with you? Or are you just one of those people who sees the light in everyone, like my sister?”

Luke reaches for her hands and gently squeezes them. “Who the hell am I to judge you? I’m no damn saint and I have no right to say a damn thing about how you live your life, that doesn’t make me better than you, that makes this fair. Everyone has a history and everyone has struggles.”

He tries to smile again. “You being an alcoholic was part of you before you met me and that’s your decision, so are telling me that because you want to make me think you’re tainted or too damaged for me to care for you? Well you failed. I still like you and I still want to know you!”

Jessica breathed, her eyes closing briefly as she took in Luke’s words. Squeezing his hands back, she opened her eyes and looked back up at him, speaking quietly. 

“I don’t know how much experience you have with deaths, or loss. Maybe a lot, I don’t know. So maybe you get that sometimes it feels like it would be easier just to have no connections left. But…I don’t know. That’s so empty. And I… I still want them. Connections.” 

She had thought this made her weak, even selfish. But Luke didn’t seem to see it that way. She pulled her hands from his, still looking up at him, into his eyes. Then she leaned into him, wrapping an arm around his waist lightly. 

“I still want them with you.” She says this very quietly, but it is possible he still can hear.

“I seen too much death lately, buried the closest to a father I ever had a few months ago when someone shot up his barbershop trying to kill me,” Luke told her softly. “See I brought that to his doorstep, so again, I’m not perfect or saintly.” He tightened his arm around her, holding her tightly. “I want to be with you too, Jessica. Man we both must be crazy, talking like this after only just meeting. But it feels right to me.”

Jessica’s lips turned up slightly in acknowledgment of his words. He was right, it was crazy to feel this strongly, and to even entertain hope that things might turn out okay. But then, it was crazy to think of a man who couldn’t bleed or bruise, or a woman who could move a car. Maybe it was time to put faith into crazy.

Luke sat there silently, enjoying how she felt pressed against him, before asking, “Hey, do you dance?” 

Before she could answer he stands up and walks to the wall nearest them, lowering the lights. Next to the light switch is a knob that controls speakers that pipe in the music from the club stage. The band below is playing slow soulful music, typical for this kind of club as Luke walks back to Jessica and holds out his hand to her. 

“May I have this dance?”

Jessica gave a started laugh, shaking her head. 

“My sister is the one who was a pop star. Do I look like a dancer to you?” 

Still, when Luke held out his hand, she stepped forward and took it. Every time she let her hand get lost inside his, it felt right, connecting, comforting, real somehow. She stood with her hand in his, her body language awkward, waiting for him to position her and lead.

Luke grins while pressing himself against her, taking the lead. 

“It’s a good thing I can’t feel pain in my feet, but just wait, soon we’ll move together as naturally as breathing. Wait, did you say your sister was a popstar? What’s that about? Although no offense to her but that whole genre of music is soooooooo bad. Anyway, is she someone I’ve heard of?” 

He spun her away then pulled her back to him, his smile getting even bigger. “See, natural.”

Jessica’s movements were awkward and a little stiff, but she was smiling as she let Luke spin her. 

“Like hell I’m a natural. I’m a tall, skinny eel with octopus tentacle limbs on the dance floor.” 

At his question about her sister, Jessica burst out laughing. 

“Oh, you probably know her. My sister is the whitest celebrity ever made, I’m talking beyond Miley Cyrus level. Ever heard of It’s Patsy?”

She started singing the theme song mockingly. “Itsssss Patsy! Patsy! IReally want to be your friend, hope this day will never end…“ Seriously, she was Patsy Walker. Then when she started going by Trish, she tried to be a pop singer for a while. Her one hit wonder was, no joke, "Hey hey I want your Cray Cray,” and if you listen to it your ears will bleed. Now she’s got her own talk show, Trish Talk. Clearly we aren’t blood related, I’m the adopted publicity stunt.“ 

But as sarcastically as Jessica described Trish, there is affection and obvious love for her in her expression.

“Dancing is like sex, just have to find that rhythm, and trust me we spent hours last night discovering that.”

Luke’s eyebrow raises up thinking about the name Patsy, he honestly never heard of her.

“Yeah, sorry never heard of her, and I don’t listen to much pop music. But hey, I’m sure she’s talented. What do you mean publicly stunt?”

“Oh man, I can’t believe I found someone who doesn’t know Patsy. Her mother will be devastated, she can’t accept Trish being less than universally known,” Jessica snickered. “And don’t be so sure about the talent. The pop star thing was very short lived and she was on drugs the entire time, so not her best efforts.” 

She stiffened slightly at Luke’s question about the publicity stunt, stepping on his feet and stumbling. Eventually she answered tightly, her hand squeezing his unconsciously. 

“Just what I said. We went to the same school, and when Dorothy, her mom, decided to adopt me, it was because Trish had been getting bad press and, as Dorothy said, they needed to "change the Patsy narrative. Direct fucking quote. She stood over me while I was in the fucking hospital, seconds after finding out my whole family just died, and told me Patsy was going to SAVE me. And believe me, one day never passed without the woman making it obvious that I wasn’t really her kid, that a publicity stunt was all it was. She’s a real piece of work, that woman.“ 

A good portion of what she had just said may not have made since to Luke given the large amount of information given without context, and it is all very personal, but Jessica didn’t think about it; at his question, the answers spilled out with no shortage of bitterness in tone.

Luke shakes his head as Jessica describes everything. 

“Hey don’t get mad, but damn, your mom sounds like a real callous bitch! Anyway you asked me if I had any siblings earlier. I really don’t like to think about it, but as a kid I ran with a bad crowd. The one that led us was like my brother. Well he and the gang were getting deeper and deeper into trouble, dealing and robbing. That’s not me so I stopped running with them, met a girl, started to turn my life around. Turns out instead of being happy for me, he framed me, planted drugs in my place, then called the cops and got me locked up. He was like…no, he was my brother, and he took so much from me.” 

Luke’s expression saddens. “Anyway I’ve moved on, now Danny and I are family. And I know he’ll never betray me.”

Jessica makes a face, shaking her head. 

“Dorothy is Trish’s mother, not mine. I had a mother. She happens to be dead.” She says this without emotion, her hand tightening on Luke’s waist. 

“She never called me her daughter outside of public events, and I never called her my mother. Trish is different. I only claim her as my sister because she is my best friend too.” 

Only friend, actually. She listened closely to Luke explain about his brother, grimacing in understanding for him. “Sounds like we both hit the lottery when it comes to fucked up family functioning.”

Squeezing her tightly in his arms, he smiles and relaxes again. “Yeah but now we get to choose who we call family. No liars or betrayers. Like me and Danny, he’s family. And I’m hoping that no matter how much we got going on or what happens between us, that we’ll be there for each other.”

He shook his head, laughing at himself. “My God, why am I talking about this heavy shit so damn soon? I bet it’s scaring you off!”

Jessica tenses in Luke’s arms, giving a startled in uncomfortable laugh. “Damn, if I didn’t know better I’d say you’re a lesbian. Trying to pull up in your u haul over there.”

But even as she deflects she is thinking…he seriously feels that way? And if he does, why is that not making her want to run as fast as she can and get massively drunk? Why is she still hoping that he means it? God, she spends too much time with Trish. Those stupid romantic comedies have warped her brain.

Jessica exhaled, looking up at him. “I have that one thing going for me anyway. I’m too damn blunt to lie, I do better with avoidance.”

“Too blunt, you???? Nah, you’re just a shy little thing.” He grins at her. “Look, just be open with me and we’ll be ok. I’ll always try to keep an open mind.”

Jessica snorted, rolling her eyes. “Believe me, you may live to regret that request of openness.” Drawing away from him slightly, she angled her head, regarding him. “So…you saw my place. Not sure how late you work tonight, but I’m in no rush to get back to it. You got nosey roommates or anything?”

“Actually when I took over this place I found a room that must have been where the old owner stayed. Guess he didn’t leave much, I started to cleaned it up but so far all I’ve done is replace the bed. But I mostly been sleeping on that couch. As for nosy roommates well,” he points to the crowd below. “Yeah, they up till 4 am every night.”

No wonder he hadn’t judged her place too badly. Jessica hesitated then said somewhat roughly, “If you want to stay with me tonight, you can, but can’t say I’m any more quiet some nights.”

“Somehow I don’t mind if you’re keeping me up at night. I think I’m gonna take you up on your offer though, your bed was comfortable and it was nice not sleeping alone. That being said tomorrow, I’ll start making that room more livable, then I can invite you to stay with me sometimes.”

“You didn’t literally sleep with me, we had sex and I waved you on,” Jessica reminded him. “You and your inaccurate sappy memory.” 

She hesitated, then said deliberately casually, “But since your brain is so determined to remember things inaccurately, maybe we can make it reality, I guess. Keep you from being a liar, since you can’t stand those.”

“Well in my defense, not a hell of a lot of blood flows to my brain when I’m holding you, so you got to cut me some slack.” He grins at her. “Yup I said it, sex with you made me dumb, you happy now?”

Jessica tried to hide her returning smile, looking down. Finally she pulled away a little, clearing her throat.

“Uh, I guess I’ll head off…not sure who won the drinking game but if we kept going I’d clean you out.” She waited a beat before saying, “I’m off tomorrow around 2 or 3 am, maybe you’ll come by or something.”

Luke catches her by the hand and pulls her close before kissing her. 

“You didn’t think I was letting you leave without something to think about while we’re apart did you?” 

After kissing her he reaches for the rest of the bottle of bourbon and hands it to her.“ Save this for us to drink together next time I see you.”

Jessica leaned into Luke’s kiss, her hand pressed against his chest. Taking the bottle from him, she smiled up at him, this time not bothering to hide it. “See you later.”


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a few weeks since Jessica saw her adoptive sister. This was hardly unusual; Jessica had been known to simply drop out of any form of contact with Trish for various lengths of time, either because she couldn’t or simply didn’t want to bother with talking to or seeing her. She loved her sister, far more than she could or was comfortable putting words to, but the woman could be damn difficult to be around sometimes. 

It wasn’t because she was prissy or bougie, although she could be both of those; Jessica was used to her more irritating mannerisms, and could either mock them or shrug them off as being unavoidable when genetically related to Dorothy Walker. It wasn’t even because she was always not so subtly prodding at Jessica to make “better choices” in her life, meaning to drink less, eat and sleep more, and do something for mental health other than punching people and avoiding all efforts at expressing actual emotion. No, the reason Jessica usually chose to avoid Trish, when she went through her spells of doing so, was because the woman knew her well enough that she could usually figure out when something was going on in Jessica’s life that Jessica didn’t want to tell her about. And once she was on the trail, for someone who wasn’t actually a private eye herself, she was pretty damn good at getting to the truth.

But Jessica found herself thinking of Trish after her latest “meet” with Luke- she wouldn’t call their interactions dates, not yet, not even in her own thoughts. Maybe because she had spent some time talking about Trish to Luke, or maybe simply because Trish was the only person Jessica had spent any degree of time with back in their teen years that Jessica still had active contact with or cared to know. And back then, during the period of time where most teenaged girls did spent the majority of their time gushing to their friends about boys and crushes and sexual exploits, Jessica had not had friends, let alone boyfriends or crushes. She had been too busy grieving her dead family, reeling from her new life as the adopted kid of a pop star’s stage mom, and trying to protect Trish from physical abuse from said mother and sexual abuse from far too many older men in the movie business to have any energy or inclination left to gossip about some acne-ridden adolescent at their school. 

She was 31 years old now, a ridiculous age to even think of words like crush or boyfriend. The most she ever talked about with Trish was whether or not she’d had sex with someone recently, and Trish was usually too skeeved out by that to want many details. But although Jessica told herself that she in no way wanted or intended to talk about Luke and whatever was going on between them with her sister, she nevertheless found herself feeling an urge to visit her. 

That didn’t mean anything, right? It had absolutely nothing to do with Luke. Jessica was allowed to have a spontaneous visit with her best friend/sister. 

She waited until she had wound down her research on her latest case for the day and had enough drinks to feel comfortable before heading to Trish’s apartment on the subway. It was beginning to be evening, but Trish had a daily routine most of the time that was fairly unvarying. Normally at this time of the day she was finished with work and would be home, working out in her private gym. Jessica was not one to give her warning about her approach with texts or calls. Instead, like usual, she simply jumped up onto Trish’s balcony and banged on the door until she came to let her in.

As Jessica would have predicted, Trish was dressed in perfectly coordinated workout clothes, light blue leggings and a sports bra, her blonde hair back in a smooth ponytail. She looked Jessica up and down carefully, plucked eyebrow raised, and didn’t immediately move away from the sliding glass door.

“I’ll bite, what’s wrong?”

“What do you mean, what’s wrong?” Jessica threw the question back at her, shrugging. “Do I look like I’m bleeding or gasping for breath or something? ‘Cause if I am, your bedside manner sucks.”

“Well, generally when you show up like this, after ignoring my texts for a while, something’s wrong,” Trish informed her, her tone calm, even pleasant, rather than rising to Jessica’s mild jab. “Like someone is stalking you, someone rose from the dead, someone is dead, you’re close to death after an attempted murder, something to do with death or attempted death. Or else you’re so drunk you can’t remember how to get to your own place.”

“Well, maybe I’m shaking up the routine,” Jessica muttered. “Can’t be as predictable as you, Yoga Barbie.”

She held her arms out as though to present herself to Trish for her inspection. “Not dead, not dying, not any more drunk than usual. You gonna let me in, or do I have to be in an actual crisis to decide to visit, “Patsy”?”

Trish tried to scowl at her, but Jessica saw that she was fighting a smile. They both knew Jessica never called her by her very much hated former nickname unless she was mocking her or trying especially hard to piss her off. “I still say something’s up. But sure, come on in.”

She stepped back to give Jessica room to come inside, shutting the door behind her and locking it back. Jessica made her way into Trish’s kitchen and helped herself to opening the fridge, making a face when she saw that all of Trish’s drinks were diet, had impossible to say ingredients, or water. She dug until she found a normal Coke miraculously pushed to the back and took it back with her to the couch, popping the tab. Feeling Trish staring at her, she looked back, raising her eyebrows.

“What?”

“There’s whiskey and bourbon in the cabinet, like usual,” Trish informed her. “You know I keep it for you, just in case.”

“Yeah, I might get to that in a little bit,” Jessica shrugged. “I’m good for right now.”

Trish’s eyes about bugged out of her head as Jessica took another swig of the soda. She rushed over to sit beside her, deliberately knocking her knee into Jessica’s. 

“Okay, now I know something is up. Jessica Campbell Jones just knowingly, deliberately chose a Coke, knowing alcoholic beverages were available. What the hell is going on, Jessica? What happened?!” 

“Chill out, stop being so dramatic,” Jessica rolled her eyes, but Trish noted that she wasn’t looking at her straight on. “Nothing’s going on, nothing’s happening, can’t a woman change things up once in a while without you pulling amateur PI moves to figure out why?”

“Are you trying to quit drinking?” Trish pressed, not bothering to acknowledge her denial. “Because good for you if you are, you know I’d support that all the way, Jess, but something must have pushed you over into that decision.”

“I said I’d ransack your supplies later, does that sound like I’m quitting drinking?” Jessica pointed out. “Jesus, stop already, you’re gonna make me regret deciding to see you when I could have visited a bar.”

“Are you trying to lose weight?” Trish tried next. “Because if you are, switching from alcohol to full fat soda isn’t any difference in calories, actually it’s got far more fat and sugar, so that would be pretty inefficient-“

Jessica set her can down and stared at Trish, narrowing her eyes. 

“Seriously, that’s your advice on me hypothetically trying to lose weight? What, no protests about whether or not I need to, or the psychological reasons behind my desire to, just straight to calories and fat grams? Tell Dorothy to get out of your mouth or I’m leaving.”

“What? Oh, sorry, it’s- it’s kind of automatic,” Trish said apologetically, leaning back onto the couch with a sigh. “That’s not even my soda, it’s left from Simpson, so you know how long that’s been in there-“

“I was wondering if you had a secret sugar stash you’ve been hiding, Patsy’s dirty little secret,” Jessica smirked. 

Trish ignored her, continuing as though she didn’t hear. “I don’t think you need to diet, Jess, of course I don’t. Look at you, you’re skinnier than I am, you know I’m always telling you that you need to eat your calories in food more than alcohol at least some days of the week.” 

She furrowed her brow, still clearly trying to figure the other woman out. 

“So if you’re not trying to quit drinking, and you’re not counting calories, what is it? You don’t look hungover, and that normally wouldn’t stop you. What, did you meet a guy or something?”

She said this with a chuckle, dismissing it even as she said it, but when Jessica took another long gulp of her drink, studiously avoiding Trish’s eyes, Trish sat up straighter, her expression sharpening. 

“Wait, did you?”

“How much vodka do you have for me, again?” Jessica deflected, starting to stand, but Trish gave an excited near squeal and seized Jessica’s hand, pulling her to sit back down. 

“You did, didn’t you! Jessica, why didn’t you say something?”

“Probably because I knew you’d do this,” Jessica muttered, exhaling. “Can I have my hand back now?”

“No,” Trish said decisively, giving it a squeeze. “I need details, now. Where did you meet this guy? How long ago? What’s he look like? Have you been on a date yet?”

“We fucked, does that count?” 

“Oh Jessica, come on!” Trish groaned, giving her hand a little tug before letting it go. She shifted to face her more fully, her blue eyes alight with her interest and what Jessica thought of as far too excessive enthusiasm. “You’re not going to throw me off of this by being you. What really happened?”

“We did,” Jessica insisted, deliberately keeping her tone casual and flicking the tab of her soda repeatedly, in effort to annoy Trish with the sound. “First night we met, too. You said you want details, you want to hear about positions, or just penis length?”

“Jessica,” Trish sighed, shaking her head. “You’re not going to distract me. Or gross me out.”

“Oh good, then I can tell you everything. First he took his shirt off, then I tore his zipper down with my teeth-“

“It’s more than that to you,” Trish cut her off, speaking over top her continued efforts to disgust. “It wasn’t just sex. I can tell that just by looking at you. You actually like him. This actually means something to you, doesn’t it? You actually feel something for him, Jess.”

“Well, yeah, I felt plenty with his dick in me-“

“Jessica,” Trish said quietly, placing both hands on the other woman’s shoulders with a firm pressure and looking at her directly enough that Jessica stopped, uncomfortable against her intensity. “Stop. You do care about this guy. I can see it. I could see something different about you the second you walked in tonight.”

Under the weight of Trish’s hands and the serious way she watched her, Jessica exhaled, squirming uncomfortably. Even if she continued to deflect, it wasn’t going to stop Trish, and to continue to deny was dishonest and felt wrong. 

“His name is Luke,” she muttered, looking towards Trish’s ear rather than into her eyes. “Luke Cage. He runs a nightclub in Harlem. But I barely know him, Trish. He barely knows me. So don’t hold your breath or anything.”

“But you like what you do know,” Trish pressed, squeezing Jessica’s shoulder lightly. “And so does he.”

“Trish, this is me we’re talking about here,” Jessica snorted, attempting to duck out from under her hands. “Don’t start designing wedding invites. I’m sure I’ll do the me thing and fuck everything up within the next week, so don’t be too excited for me.”

Although her tone was light, Trish reacted with emphatic dismay at her words. Hanging onto Jessica, not letting her shrug out of her grasp so easily, she gave her a little shake, looking at her with far too much earnest, wide-eyed feeling for Jessica’s comfort.

“Don’t do that, Jessica. Don’t write yourself off or put yourself down. You do deserve this. You deserve to be cared for, and desired by someone who sees you as special and unique and wonderful even in the ways you can’t see for yourself.”

“Sounds like you’re giving yourself a pep talk, not me,” Jessica shot back at her, again shrugging off her hands. “Or else maybe you’re secretly into me yourself.”

But for once, Trish didn’t rise to the verbal bait. Letting Jessica pull her shoulders back and instead resting a hand on her knee, she continued to look at her steadily and seriously.

“Jess…just don’t tell yourself that you aren’t worth it. Give yourself a real chance here. Please.”

Jessica shifted, even more uncomfortable, and let out a loud exhalation, rolling her eyes again. Even so, she gave Trish’s hand a quick, awkward pat before standing. 

“Whatever, if my love life is that important to you, you obviously need to get out more yourself. But just for you, maybe I’ll consider it. Now I definitely need some booze.”

Making her way towards the cabinets Trish always kept her drinks in, she called over her shoulder, “What kind of ridiculous kung fu panda shit you call self-defense have you been learning lately? Or are you too busy learning to make those so called health drinks that look like dirty water mixed with seaweed?”

She was glad when Trish finally let her change the subject, educating her on far more on either subject than Jessica wanted to hear about. As she settled down on the couch again with several bottles set before her, she tried not to think about what Trish had said to her, and how very similar her views were to Luke’s. It was far easier to try for low expectations and cynicism; after all, wasn’t that how she’s lived her life so far? 

88

Trish Walker was usually pretty good at easing information out of people that she wanted to know. 

She was a talk show host, after all; it was part of her job to set people at ease, to get them on the topic she wanted them on and to keep them there, with as many juicy details put forth as possible. But Jessica Jones was not like most of her subjects, and even seventeen years after them becoming family of sorts, she didn’t have any better techniques of getting things out of her when Jessica wanted them kept in. 

And Trish’s curiosity, when it came to Jessica’s new love interest, was driving her mad. Jessica was not the sort of person who was ever really interested in anyone, at least not beyond a roll in bed for a night or two. Certainly not since the trauma of Kilgrave and everything he had put her through and the choices he had forced her to make. Even as teenagers, Jessica hadn’t been the romantically inclined type. The last Trish could remember her really being into someone had been back in their early twenties, when Stirling had still been alive- and that was nearly ten years ago. She had almost started to think Jessica truly wanted to go through her life more or less alone.

But as much as Jessica tried to downplay it and shut down any details, Trish could see the difference in her with this guy. She was less reclusive, for one thing, and less sharp in her words and expressions. Hell, she was even drinking less, and that was something like a miracle.

But Jessica didn’t want to talk about him much, or really at all, and when Trish suggested meeting him, she about took her head off. So that left Trish with only one option, the way she saw it. It could be fifteen years before Jessica decided it was time for her guy to meet her, and by then she might very well decide to cut him loose in some misguided effort of “saving him from herself”. If Trish wanted to meet this Luke Cage, she was just going to have to meet him for herself.

It wasn’t very hard for her to find the name of his club with a simple Facebook and google search, given that she already knew his name and its location. The first night she had the time, she “casually” checked in with Jessica that she was working- it wouldn’t do to run into her and Luke together at the club- and then made her way with her personal driver to Harlem, putting off the confused and suspicious looks he gave her for wanting him to take her to a city and a club that was normally very far from one she would frequent. She quickly found that she was very much a stand out in its environment, given her pale skin, blonde hair, and the shimmery blue but not exactly club-hopping dress she was wearing. Somewhat disconcerted, but determined, she made her way to the bar and flashed a bright smile to the bartender, taking a seat.

“Hi, I’m looking for the owner, Luke Cage? Is he here tonight?”

A couple of waitresses were setting up the bar for the night, when Trish walked in. They both looked up from their work at Trish then at each other and laughed. 

“Are you a cop? You don’t dress like one but you look like a cop so you gotta tell us if you are!” 

The second waitress hits her on the arm and smiles. “Girl she ain’t no cop, that’s Trish from that talk show!”

“Oh right, right! You want Luke, huh? Luke is upstairs, he’s talking to that Rand guy,” the first waitress laughed. “Been a lot of rich white folks coming around lately, y'all trying to buy Harlem’s Paradise and sell those trendy drinks with fruit?” 

The second waitress politely points to the stairs leading up to Luke’s office, rolling her eyes, where he and Danny are going over plans for an upcoming raid they’re gonna make on The Hand’s Sex Slave Trafficking Ring. They finish up and Danny starts passing Trish on the stairs. Danny recognizes her right away.

“Patsy, right! I watch reruns of your show! Big fan.”

Trish flashed a smile at the waitresses and nodded at the one that had identified her correctly.

“She’s got it, I’m Trish Walker.” Somewhat disconcerted, she looked down at herself. 

“I look like a cop? Is it the hair?”

She thanks the waitress for pointing her towards Luke and begins up the stairs, quickly coming across Danny. At his recognition she smiles politely. 

“Right, thanks. It’s Trish now, but that’s me. Are you Luke?”

Danny laughs out loud. “Me, Luke? Ummm no you’re looking for the guy that looks like he benches tanks. I’m Danny, Danny Rand. Anyway it’s nice to meet you, Trish Walker.” 

After politely excusing himself, Danny walks away. You couldn’t tell by how he’s dressed, but she just met one of the richest men in New York.

In his office, Luke overheard the conversation and came to the top of the stairs. 

“Are you here for me, miss?”

Trish looked up when Luke addressed her and immediately did a double take, eyes widening. She scanned his body more slowly and with not very subtle admiration, then chuckled to herself. 

“Okay, well at least one thing makes sense. I’ll give her that, Jess has a good eye,” she said to herself aloud. Nodding to Luke, she stepped forward.

“Yes, if you’re Luke Cage, then that’s the man I was hoping to meet. I’m Trish Walker.” She held out a hand for him to shake. “I’m here to meet you because if it were up to Jessica, I probably never would. And I just have to get a look at the person who managed to make such an impression on her.“ 

She laughed, tilting her head. "Now that I see you one piece of the mystery is gone…I’m sorry if I seem rude or nosey, but if you’re used to Jessica, you’ve probably encountered far worse. I’m her sister, by the way, if she didn’t say. Which she probably didn’t,” Trish added wryly. “Sorry if this seems invasive or crazy, but with Jess, she won’t exactly issue an invitation out to let people in on her life.“ 

Luke looked confused. “Seen me in one piece?? Wasn’t aware I was in pieces?“ He showed her to a chair then took his seat behind his desk. "Well to be honest I don’t think Jessica had any intention of me meeting you either. Kind of makes a brotha feel self-conscious. But no, you not being here isn’t invasive, I mean your sister is seeing a club owner in Harlem in what was one of the most dangerous corners. But if that’s what is worrying you, let me put your mind at ease.”

He leaned forward, resting his massive hands on the desk in front of him. 

“This neighborhood has been cleansed and this club is Holy Ground. No drugs, thugs or weapons allowed here. Hell I’m thinking about running a daycare because this place is so safe. Second, I only been with your sister twice. One night was, um, unforgettable for reasons I can’t talk about as a gentleman, and the second was even better because we just talked and danced. Your sister is a hell of a woman.”

Trish’s smile widened, and she laughed, sitting in the chair Luke had offered. Although she sits primly, like a lady, her posture is nevertheless relaxed. 

“Oh, I’m not worried about Jessica being at risk of harm from weapons or drugs. Alcohol, maybe, drugs, no. Drugs were my issue, never hers.” 

Her eyebrows went up when Luke mentioned only meeting Jessica twice. Jessica’s response to him is even more incredible to her now. And at the mention of dancing, she sat up straighter, staring. 

“Jessica….talked and danced? Like, on top of a bar table or something? What in the world had she been drinking? I literally danced for a living at one point and I never saw her so much as tap her fingers to a beat.“

“Yeah we had a few drinks, and no she didn’t dance on my bar. We were actually right behind you by that couch. She’s not the best dancer, but we’ll work on that if she’ll let me teach her,” Luke smiled. “Anyway you came here to ask questions and I have about an hour before we open for the night, so ask away. I’m an open book.”

“Jessica danced. Like, properly danced,” Trish shook her head, amazed. “You must be one hell of a charmer, Luke Cage. And here I thought Jess was immune to charm and charisma.” 

She snickered. “Please, if you do teach her, video it, I don’t know if I believe this otherwise.” 

At his question, she looked at him more seriously, assessing him with the eye of a protective sister rather than a playful, friendly acquaintance. 

“No questions. More something to say. I’m not sure what happened between you, don’t know if I even want the details honestly. But whatever did, I know Jessica better than anyone, and she has been through one hell of a lot. And I can tell looking at her she’s got it for you, already. So if you aren’t into commitments, or see it as casual, let her down easy now. Jess doesn’t talk about feelings or even show them much, but if you let things go until she lets herself fall for you…she doesn’t need to let herself open up, finally, just to have someone shut her back down.“ 

She continued to eye him. "Jess might act like she’s seeing this thing between you as nothing, or even pushing you away, but you matter to her. Don’t take that lightly.”

Luke stood up and walked around the desk and sat in front of Trish, he reached over and grabs a knife. 

“You know about Jessica and her powers right? She doesn’t seem like the type that would have hid that from you.” 

So as not to damage his shirt he rolls up his sleeve and then tries to stab himself in the forearm, but the blade bends then snaps, leaving Luke of course unharmed. 

“ Look this is new to the both of us, it’s kind of a rollercoaster. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with us, but if we don’t work it’s not because I’m non-committal, it’s because we’ll give it our best shot and we came up short. But your sister and I are alike and for the first time I met someone that I don’t have to protect all the time. Not have to worry all the time about. Sounds selfish but knowing Jessica besides being beautiful, funny and sexy, she’s strong, and that brings me comfort. Does any of this make sense for you?“

Trish nodded in confirmation of knowing about Jessica’s powers. 

“Of course. I found out about two minutes after she did, when she broke our sink when we were 15.” 

Her eyes widened when Luke made the motion to stab himself, and she started to stand, to reach to try and stop him. She blinked, stunned, and then when she saw he was fine, broke out into a smile. 

“Oh wow. She found one like her. That is amazing! You know, you guys should start a group. Heroes anonymous. You could be the Super Savers. Or, or the Crime stoppers!“ 

Calming slightly, she cocked her head at him. "Just saying. Not like I could do the sibling threat thing with you, that would be a joke. But…be careful with her, whether or not you see a possible future. And if you do, well, maybe I can interpret the weirdest parts of the Book of Jessica Jones?”

Trish’s smile softens further as she listens to Luke describe Jessica and how he feels about her, how he sees her. She’s never heard anyone talk about Jessica that way except for herself in an attempt of sisterly encouragement. She finds herself feeling actually a little jealous, but pushes it away, recognizing that this is something Jessica needs and deserves, to finally have someone who feels this way about her after everything she’s going through in her life. 

“Like I said, just be careful. Not because she isn’t strong, she’s the strongest person I’ve ever known and I’m not talking just super powers. Still.“ 

Her smile softened at his description. "I have to say I like hearing that said about her. Even if Jessica would probably gag if she hear you. So…I won’t give out anything too personal, that’s her business to share, but I will give you some pointers or answers if you want. So far you meet my approval.”

“Ok you won’t give me any cheat codes, but how about a few tips? Favorite food, flowers, smells or places in the city to go? We both want to make her happy.” 

Luke stops himself short, thinking about what he’s saying, and it’s wrong. 

“You know what, forget all that. I don’t want any shortcuts, it already feels like we’re moving fast, so all those things about her, I want to learn them on my own. I want to be surprised. I think she’s worth the effort. And I’m not worried about how her past relationships ended. They ain’t us, damn sure ain’t me! So thanks for the heads up but I’ll tell you what I told her. Her past is her past, it’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t judge or question anyone’s life like that. I can’t change or control a person’s past so I don’t stress over it.”

Trish nodded slowly, impressed by the thought and consideration Luke put into his answer. “Good points. I like you, Luke Cage. I like you a lot.” 

She nodded, standing and stretching, and started to walk to the door. “Well, I’ll give you just the one tip. No purple. Trust me, not her color.” 

There were reasons for that, of course, but those were Jessica’s to tell.

“No purple, got it. So am I now Trish approved boyfriend material? Oh and I’m guessing you don’t want me to mention your visit to Jessica? I’m not sure if she’ll appreciate us talking about her. ”

Walking back behind his desk, Luke took a seat. “Please come back anytime. You and Jessica both. You can hang up here or enjoy the club downstairs, we have live music every night.” 

Also wouldn’t mind getting her and Danny together, since him and Colleen and no longer a thing. They seem to him like they might get along. 

“Yes, I think so,” Trish said decisively. “Although Jessica would say that doesn’t mean much. Apparently my taste in men sucks.”

She considered his question, furrowing her brow. “Eh, she’s always annoyed with me for one reason or another, you can decide for yourself if you want to spill.” 

Standing and reaching to shake his hand again, Trish smiled, getting ready to exit. “I will definitely keep that in mind. I get the feeling I stand out in this crowd though, but your friend Danny seemed nice.”

“Hey if you want his contact information, I can give it to you, and don’t let his sense of style fool you. He cleans up pretty nice.” 

Truth is, Danny has been investigating the docks and being in a 5000 suit would be out of place. 

“Be warned though, he’s on a vegetarian thing.”

“Vegetarian?” Trish perks up at this, interested. “I can respect that. I tried it for a while, hard to keep that up.” 

She considered, then shrugged. “Sure. Hell, my luck with men is almost as bad as Jessica’s since the last tried to kill me a few times, surely Danny can’t end up any worse.”


	5. Chapter 5

After his 'date' with Jessica and a visit from her sister Trish, Luke found himself missing her. It's only been about 2 days since he last saw her, and it just so happened today of all days was Valentine's Day. 

He regrets not squeezing Trish for more information about Jessica, now that he's standing outside her building with a bag of Chinese food and wine in one hand and flowers in the other. What the hell am I doing, what has this woman done to me?

"SCREW IT! I'm here now, I say I got a 50/50 shot here. " 

Entering her building and taking the elevator up, he makes his way to her door, which is still not fixed, Luke notices. He knocks anyway, trying not to knock down the cardboard that's there instead of the glass.

"JESSICA! IT'S LUKE CAGE!" 

Why was shouting when there is only some cardboard between them is beyond him. He really did need help. 

Jessica was still thinking about Luke freaking Cage.

How the man had crawled inside her brain (and libido truthfully) and refused to butt out, she didn’t know, but she was pretty sure she could have come up with more than a few possible reasons. Not that she would short of another Kilgrave brain highjacking. She just might be falling for him, and that was not only ridiculous given the short time period, it was scary, even dangerous. The last person she fell in love with ended up murdered, and many others she grew to care about ended up hurt or dead. Although given Luke’s unique ability, that did seem a remote possibility.

Still, her track record so far in love was a minus ten. So although Jessica had left an open invitation, she didn’t text Luke, didn’t visit for the next few days, and buried herself in work and drinking and avoiding unnecessary human contact. When Valentine’s day rolled around she expected nothing and wouldn’t have known its arrival if Trish hasn’t sent her a sappy text with far too many emojis.

So when she heard Luke bellow her name through the door late Valentine’s eve, just as she was working on her fourth drink of the night post work, Jessica was thrown. Even more so when she opened the door to see him holding both food and flowers.

“You get the rejects from a funeral or something?” She said, nodding to the flowers. No man had ever been nervy enough to give her any.

“These? Oh I didn’t tell you, it’s my secret power, I can grow and pull flowers out my butt.” 

He smiles at her and hands them to her. “By the way, if those are the rejects or leftovers I was grossly overcharged. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Usually Luke hates all holidays with Christmas being his only exception, but this was new, and he didn’t want to waste an opportunity to show his growing affection for Jessica. As sappy as this is, she was worth it. 

“I don’t know what you like so I just got random stuff. If none of that is good, well, that’s what the wine is for. So you gonna invite me in or do you have other plans?”

Jessica stares at the flowers, very much taken aback. She smiles, a little uncertainty and shyly, before quickly covering it with a smirk. 

“Look at you, acting like I’m a normal girl or something.” She takes the flowers, holding them like she thinks they could break suddenly. “I don’t really know what people are supposed to do with these, but I do know what to do with wine and takeout.” 

She opens the door, stepping back to let him in. “It comes in a square box, I eat.”

“Yeah, well we both could use a little normal don’t you think? Now got any forks?”

Luke walks over to her desk and starts to take the food out the bag. “Do you have a bottle opener? Oh and some of this is spicy. I tried to tell them to hold back on the spice but my Korean isn’t that great. Oh crap, I forgot something!” 

He stops and walks over to her, kissing her on the lips. 

“Jessica, would you please be my Valentine’s Day date?”

“You’re asking me, Jessica, if I have a bottle opener,” Jessica deadpans. “Do you have muscles?” 

She retrieved it from a kitchen drawer and handed it to him. When he kissed her, she leaned in, kissing back, and then burst out laughing at his question. “Oh my god, how long did you practice out that line?”

Luke made his voice high and sarcastic to match hers.

“Oh my god, shut up and just love me already…and for the record, out loud, never…in my head, about a thousand times.” He took the bottle opener and opened the wine. “So veggie pot stickers or drunken noodles?”

“Shut up, I do not sound anything like that. Even my customer service voice isn’t that annoying.” 

Jessica smirked at Luke’s admission, moving to help him with the food. “You are really just a huge geek, aren’t you? I bet you were out as a kid, wished on some star to grow up to be a he man…wait, noodles can be drunk?” 

She tilted her head, suddenly awkward. “Hope you didn’t expect me to get you anything. I didn’t.”

“I have no clue why they’re called that. And if you want to give me something, you can say yes to my question.” 

Luke pauses and looks at her seriously. “Look I get this seems fast to you, I mean when you think about it, our actual third date is on this lame holiday. But I just wanted to see you, especially after I got a visit from your sister last night. By the way, seriously impressive woman, tracking me down at night in Harlem looking like one of the Hilton Heirs. I guess she was vetting me to make sure I wasn’t a bad guy.”

Jessica blinked, taken aback. “Your question was serious?” Her hand stilled on a takeout box. “What are you asking me, specifically? To…be your girlfriend or something?” 

Her eyes widened at his comment about Trish, and after barking a quick laugh at his comparison of her to a Hilton, she shook her head, one hand pressing down hard against her kitchen counter. 

“Okay I am so telling her you called her Paris Hilton, and that is my new nickname for her, forever. And I’m going to kill her.” 

Her face tense, racing thoughts plain in her eyes, Jessica shook her head. What the hell was Trish doing, stalking Luke like that, and what had she said to him? What had she interrogated him about…so damn embarrassing. What, did she think she was the private eye now? And what was she doing, a woman like that, going to Harlem on her own at night? 

A new and alarming thought struck Jessica then, and her voice took on a strained note. “What did she tell you about me?”

Luke notices Jessica tense up, thinking Trish could’ve said something that could scare him off. Trying to ease her mind, he slides his arms around her and smiles. 

“She didn’t tell me anything other than to be good to you. Jessica, everything about you, the good and the bad, is for me to discover for myself. The same goes for you. I don’t want to cheat either of us of that.” He gave her a quick but sincere kiss to punctuate. 

“She did say no purple, never anything purple. To be honest I hate purple anyway. The only person that could ever pull it off was Prince. But other than that all we did is have a nice conversation. And I may have hooked her up with my friend Danny. Well, I gave her his contact information what happens next is up to them. But him being a vegetarian didn’t seem to be a deal breaker for her.”

“Yeah, she’s still a dead woman. Paris Sherlock Holmes Hilton, damn.”

Jessica shook her head, but leaned back into Luke. “She’s right though. Fucking hate that color, anything that can be used to describe a singing dinosaur is wrong.” 

Her voice us sarcastic but has a sincere edge. 

“I hate being called Jessie too. Only Trish’s mother and- someone else- ever called me that.” 

She eased back from Luke a little, checking his expression before accepting his words. “Please, hook the woman up with a man who isn’t a pervert, opportunist, addict, or woman beater, I’m begging you. She has the worst taste in men, it’s almost like she tries to find assholes. Hell, maybe she’ll butt out of my life if she gets one of her own.”

“To answer your earlier question, yes I’m asking you to be my girlfriend, as corny as that sounds,” Luke said calmly. “And hey, if you want to double date with your sister and Danny we could do that? We can get you a pretty dress, but keep the boots, those are hot.”

Expecting her to punch him, Luke backed away, putting up his hands. “Wait do you even own a dress? And by the way, do you want me to fix your door? I don’t mind, and it is the kind of thing a guy does for his girlfriend if that’s what she wants.”

As fast as things have been going between them, Jessica is still somehow surprised by Luke actually asking her to be his girlfriend. It’s something weirdly quaint and traditional for someone like her. The last time she heard anyone refer to her as their girlfriend….well, she wasn’t even going there. 

She deliberately busied herself making a plate, looking down at it as she answered slowly. 

“I think you shouldn’t make that commitment to me until I’ve told you more. I know you’ve said you want to find things out, and you’re not going to be scared off. I want that to be true, but…I’m not going to be predictable, okay? Never was an easy person anyway, and a year ago, something happened.“ 

She swallowed, meeting Luke’s gaze as she tapped her fork against the table unconsciously. In the back of her mind she can hear Kilgrave addressing her. His voice can still so easily be heard, his image so easily conjured up in her view. 

"Stop, Jessie, if you can’t sit still, then you can sit on your hands until they are too numb to move at all….do you really think this man could ever love you, Jessica? I’m the only man who’s really loved you. Who would have gone to such lengths to have you but me? Don’t kid yourself, Jessie, you’re too much like me for him to be interested for much longer…“

Her eyes somewhat unfocused as she struggled to push Kilgraves nagging voice back, Jessica said out loud, "I’m different now. After. I deal, but not exactly well. You need to get that part of me, because it won’t be going away. You’ve been to prison, that stays with you, I’m sure.“ 

She paused, again hearing Kilgrave mocking, telling her she is being overly dramatic. ” I had a different kind of prison. Sometimes, it feels like I’m still in it. And there’s no point in fixing the door. Trish has twice. It will break again, trust me.” 

She forced a smile, trying to lighten up. “I have a dress. Don’t wear it though. Dating with Trish sounds….really weird.”

“Jessica look at me, I’m here because I want to be here, I’m not afraid of your past or your demons, I asked you to be my girlfriend because we can be good for each other. But I hear you and I’m not taking what you say lightly. I’m just willing to try, like I told your sister, I think you’re worth it.” 

Luke cleared his throat. “So that being said how about we slow things down, eat and drink, a little maybe watch The Big Red One on DVD.” 

He pulled out the box from inside his jacket. “Not your typical Valentine’s Day Movie. See I’m not as corny as you think. And Jessica, seriously, anything you want to tell me, anytime, just say so. I’ll always listen and won’t judge you.” 

He glanced towards the door again. “Let me take a shot at fixing the thing anyway, the door, I mean. Take it you had frosted glass here before?”

Jessica shrugged, giving a faint smirk. “That damn window is bothering you, isn’t it? Do what you want, I seriously don’t care. If you want to fix it, knock yourself out.” 

She nodded, silently accepting his promise, reached for his hand, and squeezed it in wordless thanks. Then she gave him a push down onto a chair at her table, straddling his lap suggestively. “I can think of a few things we can do.”

“Well damn, raincheck on the movie, I’m good with that.“ Luke smiled, sliding his hand down to her butt. "But baby, I’m still hungry. Can we eat first? I get the feeling I’m gonna need the energy.”

Her effort at distraction and shoving away difficult feelings did not seem to be working on Luke. Jessica smiled, somewhat lopsided, and then slid off Luke’s lap, sitting in the chair across from him and pouring herself some wine. 

“Sure, fuel up.” She started to eat too, paying more attention to drinking than food, but she is eating.

“Hey, you mad at me? I wasn’t rejecting you. Really, I’ve been up since 6 am yesterday and been too busy to eat.”

Luke got out of his chair and knelt down in front of her, trying to meet her eyes. 

“I want you always, hell you’re like my new addiction, Jessica. One I’m not going to ever want to give up. I mean, damn...I’m head over heels for you, girl. Wait did I just say that out loud?”

She wasn’t mad. She wasn’t sure how she felt, exactly. Confused, mostly. Jessica was used to dealing with most emotions by ignoring them or burying them under work, sex, or alcohol, and being around Luke tended to miss with that habit. 

She snorted, her smile more open at Luke’s rambling. “What the hell, I’m glad I’m not the only one with foot in my mouth disease. Damn, see me naked once and I have you for life?”

A little more serious, she took another bolstering drink before answering with unusual thought to her reply. 

“I’m not mad. Lately I don’t know what I am, but it’s different. I’m used to being numb, or angry, or scared. I’m not used to…this.” She gestures between them.

“So is feeling happy making you uncomfortable? Do you not want to be happy for once? Or are you afraid that what we have between us is gonna get taken from you somehow? Nobody can do that, Jessica. Hell, a week ago I let a hand grenade explode in my hands, not a mark on me. So what can I do to get you to just let happy have a chance?”

Jessica considers his question, again honest with her response.

“Honestly, yeah. Being happy does make me uncomfortable, because I’m always waiting for it to stop. It never lasts long and what comes next has always been devastating.” 

She stopped, thinking over his words, for the first time something dawning on her. “Wait. You can’t die. Well shit, that kind of is different…that’s one less possibility. You can’t even be hurt, can you?” She tilted her head, considering him. “Can you be mind controlled?”

Unsure of his own limitations, Luke wanted to reassure her but also not lie.

“Let’s just say I haven’t face anything that can put me down for good. But mind control?? Is that real??? Can you control my mind and make me do a chicken dance?” He chuckled, but seeing her expression, stopped himself quickly.

“Sorry, I know you’re being serious, and if mind control is real I honestly don’t know. But I’m not gonna let that scare me. I’ll never let fear control me.” 

“It’s real.” Jessica says this flatly, not looking at him, and takes another drink. “It isn’t an ability I have, but it’s real.” 

She knows she does let fear control her sometimes. Hell, lots of times, daily. It’s the main reason she drinks; it’s the entire definition of PTSD. Thankfully, the couple of times Jessica has felt triggered in Luke’s presence, he hasn’t seemed to notice. Yet. 

She deliberately stabbed some food onto her fork, chewed it, and changed the subject. 

“You didn’t come here for that. You want to be my valentine, I don’t have cards and flowers, but I can definitely make your visit worth the trip.” She smirked, suggestive. “How many beds you break so far?”

Luke smirks leaning in to kiss her. “Well if you’re saying you’ll be mine, let’s find out if we can destroy yours and get your neighbors to file noise complaints against us.” 

Suddenly forgetting he was hungry, he got on his feet, pulling her out of her chair and scooping her off her feet and into his arms. Spinning, Luke marched to her bedroom, laying her onto the bed. Hovering over her, he began to remove his clothes. Not breaking eye contact, he kisses her neck and ears.

“You ready for me?”

“Fuck them all, the landlord already hates me. Might as well get him to want to serve me an eviction notice…and Malcolm needs gossip on me, it’s been far too quiet.”

Jessica lets out a startled laugh when Luke lifts her, but quickly wraps her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, kissing him hungrily. She shrugs out of her clothes impatiently, tossing them on the floor, and in one swift movement flips Luke over, straddling him instead. 

“Question should be are you ready for me.”

Luke grins at her, reaching up and touching her cheek. “You’re perfect and beautiful. ”

He can’t bring himself to say it out loud just yet, but looking at this beautiful woman, it’s clear to him. He loves her. It’s early and reckless as hell, but it’s still what he feels.

Jessica smiles, her hands gliding up his shoulders and down his arms, over his chest in a teasing fashion. Her lips soon follow their path as she uses tongue and a little teeth, marking territory.

Luke closes his eyes pretty much giving Jessica full control of everything, her hair glides over his skin, and just the smell of her is making him harder and anxious for more contact from her. 

“You’re driving me crazy Jessica!”

Jessica’s teeth nip at the muscular but sensitive skin of his inner thigh, breathing out huskily, “That’s the idea, babe.”

She sits up, slowly making sure each part of her makes contact with his skin on the way, and then, straddling one of his thighs, begins to rub herself against him without yet taking him inside herself, preparing herself. Her breath short, quickly getting wet, she jerks him up so they are both sitting up, wrapping her legs around his waist and guiding him inside her.

“Damn girl! You trying to make sure I never leave!”

Everything about her makes him more and more excited, swelling and throbbing inside her, synching his movements, his breathing, everything with hers. Again Luke isn’t much for cussing and this is the second time she’s made him lose it.

“FUCK JESSICA!”

Eventually he can’t hold back any longer. He comes harder than the first time…times they had sex before. Of course this time there was more emotion, more feelings involved, it wasn’t just sex or fucking anymore, not too him. If it wasn’t clear before to him it is now, he’s fallen for her. Every sarcastic inch of her.

Jessica is all the more turned on by Luke’s response. Breathing heavily, still rolling her hips rhythmically as she rides out his climax, her own peaking about twenty seconds later. Eyes closed, back arching as she threw her head back, she groaned aloud, a delicious shiver running through her. Still breathing hard, sweat slicked at the nape of her neck, Jessica smiles down at him, enjoying his expression and the effect she has on him. It makes her feel strong, sexy in a completely different way than usual. 

Leaning down to give a lingering kiss on his lips, she slides off him to lie beside him on the bed, one arm strewn over his chest. Glancing up, she laughed as she saw they had in fact broken the bed’s headboard, and left a crack in the wall behind it.

“And now we wait for the noise complaints.” 

She shifted, pushing her bare body closer against Luke’s side and letting her eyes half close. That is until she heard an all too familiar drawl nearby. 

“Impressive, Jessica, but you can’t deny you got just as much pleasure with me, had more orgasms too. Your new muscled boy toy doesn’t know what he’s missing out on, does he?” 

Jessica froze, her muscles going rigid, skin cold. Eyes opening wide, she jerked her head to take in the sight of Kilgrave, naked and stretched out in bed on her side unoccupied by Luke. With a choked gasp she jerked upright and leapt literally across the room, fists up.

“You’re not real. Get the fuck away, you aren’t real,” she said out loud through a clinched jaw, her voice shaking almost as badly as her frame.

Luke was drained and slowly drifting off suddenly snaps away, not knowing what’s going. At first thinking Jessica is yelling at him, but her eyes are looking past him. He looks, prepared to crush whoever she’s screaming at, but there is no one there. 

“Jessica, what’s going on? Who are you yelling at? ” 

All he can think to do is wrap his arms around her tightly. 

“Jessica…baby I got you. I got you.”

At first Jessica fights Luke’s arms, not fully recognizing that it is him rather than Kilgrave holding onto her. But she’s still seeing Kilgrave on the bed, a distortion in reality she struggles to grasp. When she stills, recognizing the person holding her as Luke, and looks down at his arms around her, she sees that they are clearly larger than Kilgrave’s, not to mention a rather darker shade. Her eyes flick back to the bed, and she can no longer see Kilgrave there. Badly shaken, she closes her eyes tightly, then opens them, still trembling. Hot tears burn beneath her eyes, and the familiar desire to drink crashes over her. 

“Fuck.”

Continuing to hold her, Luke tries to make eye contact, to reassure her that he has her.

“You’re good, Jessica, I’m here and I got you. Whatever is going on, I got you and nothing or nobody is gonna get to you!” 

Jessica takes a shaking breath, avoiding his eyes. She doesn’t push him away though as she mumbles to herself, reciting the familiar litany of street names. Slowly she reassures herself of the present reality. Luke’s presence is grounding, and unlike with Trish, in the times she tried to soothe her through a panic attack, she isn’t afraid of accidentally hurting him. Swallowing, she tried to ease away.

“Sorry. I’m…fine.”

Luke gets out of bed to grab her something to drink, returning with a bottle of bourbon and two glasses. He sits next to Jessica and pours her a drink.

“I don’t think you are, Jessica. That wasn’t a nightmare. You were awake, you saw something, didn’t you? Do you want to talk about it?”

Luke looks concerned, but not concerned for what has he gotten into. He’s concerned about how can he help her.

“Jessica, what’s going on? Who did you think was there?”

Jessica takes the glass and drinks in several long swallows, slightly more at ease as the bourbon burns its way down. She continues to avert her eyes, shoulders hunched defensively not because of anything Luke is doing, but because she is embarrassed and ashamed. Of freaking out like that in front of him, of seeing Kilgrave when she had just had amazing sex with him, even of actually needing the damn drink. Normally she doesn’t give a damn who sees her drink, but Luke’s opinion matters to her. He has a right to ask questions. Anyone would in his place, and the time has come to lay down some of the cards she keeps close to her chest.

She pours more into her glass, her jaw taut as she answers. “You see it now. You think I’m so strong, but this is who I really am. I can lift a car, buy I’m scared shitless by things that aren’t real.” 

She laughs, brittle, bitter, and takes another drink. “It’s a long, insane story. Goes something like this. Mind control? Real. Guy called Kilgrave- yeah, obviously a shitty stage name- could do it. Picked me as his object of obsession. Kidnapped me, kept me with him for eight months…made me do whatever he wanted. Go wherever he wanted.“ 

Her hand tightens on the glass. When it breaks, she barely notices. 

"Made me….feel like it was my will. It wasn’t but he…infects people. He made me do a lot…he made me watch a lot. He raped me.” The word was flat, lacking emotion, but her eyes are not. 

“He made me watch him torture people. Torture my own sister. He…he made me kill.” She sucked in a breath, eyes fixed down. “I’m a murderer, because of him. And when I got away, he killed people, ruined their lives, just to get to me. To send a message to me. Almost killed every person who was stupid enough to put themselves in my life.”

She took another breath, voice controlled. “He’s dead now. I killed him too, and as much as I thought’d enjoy it, I didn’t. It’s just another death I’ve got on my hands. He’s dead, but I still see him. I still hear him. Sometimes, I think when he broke into my brain, he left something of him there. Living, somehow, because I’m alive.“

Finally she raised her eyes to Luke’s. "I’m not the person you think I am.”

Luke is picking up the glass and wiping her hand with the sheet. He takes a deep breath before he speaks. 

“You’re not who I thought you were, Jessica, you’re right. You’re stronger! God Jessica, what that piece of shit did to you and you survived him. YOU ENDED HIM! And those things he made you do, that’s on him, not you. But truth is even if we cleanse evil from this world its touch lingers, but that pain, that fear you feel is proof you’re a good person. Because only an evil motherfucker like him wouldn’t feel anything. As for how to deal with your pain, let’s figure that out together, because you got me and I’m not going anywhere. Because I’m in love with you.” 

He pulled her into his chest. “You and I will figure out something together.” 

He rubbed her back gently, then stilled his hand as another thought came to him. 

“Wait, didn’t you say you were under his influence for eight months? Is it possible he added a contingency thought in your mind, deeply hidden, to be triggered when he dies?”

This is more or less what Trish has said to her before, but it is nearly impossible for Jessica to believe it. She let him take her hand and wipe it, a mixture of gratitude, relief, and self-criticism filling her chest as Luke pulled her to him. She rested her head against his chest, letting him hold her. His words don’t sink in for several moments.

“You’re…in love with me?” She looks up at him, not quite believing she heard him right. At his next musing, she stilled, going cold all over. “Like what?”

Luke kisses the top of her head. “Yeah you heard me right, I said I’m in love with your sarcastic ass, you want to fight about it?” 

He laughs a little, hoping it will make her feel better, then his voice gets more serious. “Yeah what if that asshole put something in your mind to make you see and hear him, to torture from beyond the grave.”

She’s falling in love with Luke too. But she can’t say it, not yet. Truthfully, she has never said she loves someone before, not since she lost her family. Even on the two occasions she said so to Trish, it was in code. Still, it doesn’t scare her as much as she thought it would to hear. 

“Nah, you get a pass on fighting for now.” She scrunched her brow, considering. “I could see him doing that. But Trish says it’s just PTSD. Her and the shrink she made me see once.”

“It could be both. Question, does her shrink know anything about super powers and mind control, because if not he’s probably just attaching a bullshit diagnosis on something he knows nothing about. You may have PTSD but maybe a little more is going on. I don’t know, this isn’t my strength. Maybe Danny knows more.”

“How would Danny know?” She sat back a little, looking at him. “You don’t think I’m insane? How is that possible?”

Crap he forgotten she doesn’t know about Danny, which is messed up on his part as he just set up her sister with him.

“Danny is like a magic monk. Sort of. Somehow after hearing your story, his isn’t as surprising as I thought it would be. Did I did mention he’s going on a date with your sister tomorrow??”

“A magic monk,” She says this blankly, having no idea what that means in practical terms. “Magic like superpowers, or like Harry Potter?” 

At his mention of Trish on a date, she smirks. “That was fast….did you mention to her the monk bit? Not sure how she feels about the celibate life.”

“I’m not real clear on the details but he’s some kind of mystical warrior monk. And technically I did mention the monk thing to her. They’ll be fine, Danny could use someone to make him happy. Lately he’s been all about his mission ever since his ex left him. He hasn’t been his usual Danny self.”

“Hm,” Jessica says, noncommittal. “She’s a big girl. If you trust they might work, I’ll accept it. Hell, she might go for someone that different from her norm.” 

She is feeling calmer now, though somewhat drained. She rarely sleeps when she can help it, unless she drinks enough to induce it. She hesitated, then leaned tentatively into Luke.

Settling in next to Jessica, holding her to his chest, Luke wished there was more he could do for her. Maybe Danny knows someone, and if not, with all his money he could find someone that can help. Too many damn maybes. For right now all he can do is try to keep her from dwelling on things too much. 

“Hey Jessica, you never answered. Do you want to give us a shot? Boyfriend, girlfriend?”

Jessica lifts her eyes up to him, regarding him. After a long hesitation, she nods, pressing a hand against his chest. “Yeah….yeah, I do.”

“Damn girl why you trying to lock a brotha down like that!” He had to tease her just a little, partly because it’s his sense of humor, but also to help ease her mind. 

“I’m just kidding, Jessica. I’m happy to be yours and only yours.”

Jessica smirked, giving him a shove. “Fine then, I release you. Go get some other badass mutant woman, let me know if she can make you come like I can.”

She smiled as he spoke more sincerely, tilting her head to give him a kiss on the lips. Then she looked down at them both, snickering. “Did you realize we’re both still naked?”

“What, you shy now? After the things we done to each other? And there is no other woman out there for me. I’m happy with us.” 

“Do I look shy?” Jessica snorted, running just a nail slowly down the bare skin of Luke’s chest. “I’m just…observant.”

“Ok that was adorable. Do that again, it was so cute!” Luke laughed when she snorted. He kissed the top of her head again, gently rubbing her back. 

“Say let’s take off tomorrow, maybe hit the road for the weekend. We could go somewhere or we could just pick a direction and just drive. What do you think about that? My club will be fine, so can you take off or do you have any cases that need you?”

“Shut up, I am so not adorable, or cute, or any word remotely similar,” Jessica wrinkled her nose, giving Luke a little shove. She relaxes against him although as he rubs her back, enjoying the soothing sensation without acknowledging it.

“Malcolm can handle things for a day. Let’s do it.” She paused. “Do the drive thing, not sex. Not that I’d say no to that either.”

“Who the hell is Malcolm? Competition? Although if he is I have to say, I’m pretty confident I won,” Luke grinned. “I’ll get us a car tomorrow, pack yourself a bag with everything you’ll need for a few days.

Jessica rolled her eyes. “Hardly. He’s my assistant. If I didn’t fire him again. I’ve done it so many times I can’t keep track, but he always shows up the next day anyway.”

She gave a slight smile. “My bag will be light. Extra underwear, toothbrush, and booze, I’m good to go.”


	6. Chapter 6

Downtown Manhattan Rand Enterprise, Danny Rand is using his secret elevator. He arrives home to his penthouse- well his deceased parent’s penthouse. They all lived there long ago before the accident that took his parent's lives and left him stranded. Eventually he had been found and raised by the Monks of Kun-Lun. 

Danny was a little bruised and bleeding from his encounter with The Hand. He had gotten sloppy when he was texting with Trish, and they must have heard him texting or the light from his phone. Stupid of him to take that risk. They noticed him, but lucky for him he got away with little contact and hopefully his identity still unknown.

Danny flops onto the couch, which is still covered with sheets that he hasn't bothered to uncover since coming back to New York. He sighs with relief that he's home just before his eye catches the clock on the wall.

"SHIT TRISH!”

Panicking, he jumps to his feet and begins multitasking, cleaning everything including himself. While in the shower he calls and orders food, offering triple the cost for a very rushed delivery and set up. As he toweled off he called down to security, because he forgot to escort Trish up to him.

Everything seems in place, including him, dressed in one of the suits he recently gotten, so recently there is still a tag hanging from the sleeve. Convinced he's ready, he stands a full 10 minutes perfectly still in front of the doors to the penthouse elevator.

Trish doesn’t actually know this Danny Rand guy. But she hadn’t been lying when she said she thought he was cute, and she had been pretty impressed with Luke during her meeting with him. If Luke Cage likes the man, he has to be decent, certainly more than the last several men she has gone for.

As she arrives at the address Danny had sent her, she somewhat nervously runs a hand over her hair. She is dressed in silk pants that manage to look both casual and dressy simultaneously and a coordinating blouse, and she pulls out a compact to quickly check her makeup and hair.

She is more than a little surprised by the building she arrives at. Just what exactly does this man do, anyway? He isn’t also an actor, is he? How has she not heard of him then?

Taking a breath to soothe a slight rush of nerves, she lifts her chin and smiles, then steps inside the building.

The security Danny had alerted greet her promptly as she enters the building, barely giving her time to take in how massive it was. Rand Enterprises Main Branch here in Manhattan was only 40 stories up, but most of its real work is another 15 stories below. 

“Ms. Walker? Hi, my name is Wendell, and it’s my pleasure to welcome you to Rand Enterprises and escort you to the Penthouse of our CEO Danny Rand. Please follow me this way to the elevator.”

Wendell, a young man barely in his twenties, spoke with an excited cadence as he gestured for Trish to come along with him. 

“Please feel free to ask me any questions, if I’m capable I’ll happily answer.” Stepping in in front of an elevator far from the main entrance, Wendell swipes his card, opening the doors and stepping aside for Trish. 

“Please, after you.“

Trish is used to going to a lot of fancy places and meeting a lot of rich, famous people. But the sheer size of Danny’s building has managed to impress her, especially as it doesn’t seem to go with her memory of the man it apparently is associated with. Maybe she should have actually bothered to ask Luke who the hell Danny Rand was, to be attached to this.

She smiled at Wendell, used to putting excited fans at ease. “Hi Wendell, nice to meet you as well. So, I don’t know Mr. Rand well at all, so I do have questions. He’s the CEO, you say? Did he inherit, or did he found this? And what does Rand Enterprises do exactly? I thought he was raised by monks.“

Wendell gushes at Trish’s questions, thrilled that he gets to talk about his mentor and idol. 

“Well he inherited the company from his parents. Rand Enterprises mostly does medical research focusing on the area of cybernetics limbs and nanomaterials for soldiers and people who are impaired. We used to be into weapons under Mr.Rand’s parents, but since his return we are strictly research. Oh and yes, Mr. Rand was raised in a temple. See he was on board a plane with his parents when it crashed. His parents died, but he survived and was found by Monks. Not knowing who he was, they raised him as one of their order. He’s only found his way back to us about a year ago, taking his rightful place here.”

Trish listens with great interest, eyes wide and bright. “Wow…that is really impressive. They should make a movie about him. Of course, they would probably have to make him a Super hero for anyone to believe it.”

Not having a clue, she says this jokingly.

Wendell pulling his sleeve down to cover a small dragon tattoo on his wrist, laughs a little.

“ If you only knew.” 

Suddenly the elevator stops and the doors open, revealing Danny standing there waiting with a big smile. 

“This is your stop Ms.Walker, please watch your step and have a great day.”

Danny glances at Wendell and smiles. “Thankyou Wendell, why don’t take the day off?” He held out his hand for Trish to help her off the elevator. “Trish, you look amazing today, and welcome.”

“If I only knew? Wait, is Danny a super hero?” Trish asked Wendell, confused.

How many superheroes is Trish going to end up with in her life? Is she the only boring normal person left in the city?

She is only briefly diverted by Danny as he appears. Taking his hand, she smiles back at him. “You look pretty put together yourself, handsome. This place is amazing.”

She cocked her head, still stuck on Wendell’s cryptic words. “Are you like all the other mutant people I keep coming across lately, by any chance?”

Danny laughs at Trish’s question. “Oh no, you have discovered my secret, now you can never leave! No Trish, Wendell is part of a new program I started when I got back to New York. He was on the streets struggling. I converted a couple of buildings in Rand’s Profile to house people like them and offered them paid apprenticeships. Wendell is also one of my students.”

“There are about 60 kids he’s done this for so far, but he’s hoping to expand it,” Wendell chimes in before the elevator doors shut behind him.

Danny, still holding Trish’s hands, leads her to a huge dining room with food spread all over the 12 foot long table, pulling out a chair for her before taking his own seat at least half way down the table. 

“That is really amazing. I like you,” Trish decided, giving Danny’s hand a playful tug. “I’ve always wanted to make a difference, to really matter to people. Save them, even. I haven’t figured out how to yet, but you seem well on your way.” 

She eyed Danny curiously. “I was referring to you though, not Wendell. Are you a mutant?” Following him to the table, she raised an eyebrow. “Are guests coming I don’t know about?”

Danny looks at the table and everything on it. Most of the things here are pretentious and totally not his style. A bowl of plain rice catches his eye and he grabs it and moves around to Trish, offering his hand again. 

“I’m sorry, this isn’t me, I’m not about this penthouse or this table or all this food most not even I recognize. Truth is before you contacted me, this entire place hasn’t been touched since I lived here with my parents. Follow me Trish, if you’re interested in the real me.”

Danny leads her to a door with his name on it, but it’s spelled with kid friendly letters. The doors open into an empty room with only a single sleeping mat on the floor and a small meditation shrine near a window.

“This is who I am now, this company, all that money means nothing to me. Which is why I’ll spend it helping people, and no, not for tax write offs or recognition, but because it’s the only thing I can do to make up for my parents’ wrongs.”

Trish follows, intrigued. She definitely does want to get to know Danny. The more she learns, the more questions and interest she has. She raises an eyebrow at the cartoon letters on door to Danny’s room but doesn’t ask. When she takes in Danny’s room, she is somehow not quite surprised. 

“This makes sense. You were raised in a temple right? I would imagine wealth might feel strange to you. It was for me, when I first experienced it.”

She squirmed inwardly, a little uncomfortable that she knows she does sometimes forget what she came from. Fame can be a mind trip that way. “Your parent’s wrongs?”

“Yes, this place was built by the profits of war. Every dollar has blood on it. So I stopped all efforts into making weapons. Of course nobody was happy when I did, this but with the example of Stark leading the way, they’ve learned to accept it.” 

Danny moves to the center of the room and sits down on the floor, crossing his legs and placing the bowl of rice in front of him.

“Anyway what about you? I mean you were Patsy, and now you have a talk show. What’s that like? Being the face that reaches so many homes must be nice…and terrifying.”

“That is really admirable,” Trish told him, sincere. “I wish I could have that sort of impact on people. I want to, but it never seems to work out.”

She hesitated, torn between her usual diplomacy when it comes to fame and honesty. No one has ever asked before and seemed to expect anything but a positive answer. “I’m surprised you get that. It can be…a lot, sometimes.”

“When I got home, first no one believed who I was, then suddenly I had cameras shoved in my face. It sucks being this pretty,” Danny smiles at her. 

“Well it’s not too late to make an impact if that’s what you want to do. We could collaborate if you’re interested? I may be acting forward, but there is a lot I would like to share with you. I think a partnership between the two of us would be beneficial, personally and otherwise.”

“The cameras can definitely be invasive. And god forbid you do or say something they don’t like, then the stalking can become, well, really cruel spirited. No one likes people screaming questions in their face.” 

Trish perks up at his suggestion, her posture straightening. “Really? What sort of collaboration are you thinking?”

Danny grins at Trish. “Well granted I haven’t had many first dates, but I like where this is going so far. I like your outlook of things. To be honest I was afraid you were going to be one of those women that think you’re entitled to everything. But your chi is very bright. I’m going to show you something, and if you remember it when we get back, we’ll talk more.”

Danny opens the door to what looks like a closet. “Go through.”

“My chi? I thought that was a type of tea,” Trish blinked, confusing this with chai. “I know very well I’m not entitled, Danny. I only deserve what I’m willing to work for, and sometimes not even that. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I still have to make difficult choices every day. I get on my sister about her own choices, but I get it. An addict is an addict, and we can be selfish and blind. But I’m trying to be more, far more.” 

Curious, she steps to the door, grasps the handle, and steps through.

Danny steps next to Trish, putting an arm around her waist, and moves through. They’re met with a strong wind and the bright morning Tibetan Sun. Ahead of them is a long rope bridge connecting to another cliff with a pair of massive gates.

“Trish Walker, welcome to the Hidden City of Kun-Lun.” 

The gates open up to a beautiful, peaceful city, no trash or noise pollution, just full of serenity and peaceful people. 

“Up there on that peak is the temple I was raised in. Earlier you asked if I was a mutant? No, I’m not. I’m something different, my power comes from an ancient dragon protector. Shou-Lao is the mythical dragon of Kun-Lun and the origin of the Iron Fist power. When I defeated him by punching his molten heart, Shou-Lao made me the new Iron Fist.”

Danny stops and faces Trish. “You’re probably asking yourself why I’m telling you this and showing you a sacred city since we only just met? You see, I’ve been betrayed by friends, family and allies so often I no longer trust myself. But this divine place knows what’s in a person’s heart. We can spend years in this place, but if you are not worthy, once you leave, its memories and secrets will be erased from your mind. But if you’re worthy, you will remember, and we can begin to discover what our future is together. I know this seems like a cheat, but unlike Luke, I’ve lost faith in my own judgment of people I let get close.”

Trish follows Danny through, amazed at what she is seeing. As much craziness as she has witnessed lately, this is not something she could have believes possible. She stares, momentarily wordless as Danny shows her Kun-Lun and explains to her its origin. Eyes round, she takes it in, trying to process. 

“Danny, this is beautiful. It looks like heaven, and I never believed there was such a thing.” 

Turning back toward him, she asks, “What does that mean, Iron Fist? Are you like a god?” She frowns, troubled. “I know I’m not worthy.”

“That reaction of yours is a promising start and it’s cute too. And the answer to your question is no, I’m no god, far from it. I’m just one in a line of many granted the power to protect this place.” 

Holding up his right fist, it glows, almost on fire without any heat.

“ This is Iron Fist. I could punch through a tank with no effort, combined with my training from the temple, I protect this place. But while Kun-Lun is, as you say, like Heaven, the world crumbles. That can’t be allowed to stand, especially because the one that is doing much damage was a citizen of Kun-Lun! “

Danny sighs. “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring you here to tell you all that. Would you like a tour? Maybe try some of the best sweet buns on the planet, filled honey and nuts and dates, with a nice flaky bun wrapping. Also I really want to know more about your show. I watched all the time as a kid. Seriously, while I was at home playing with friends, you were on tv!”

“Cute?” Trish crinkled her nose playfully, looking all the more cute because of it. “Cute because I think this looks like heaven, or cute because I think I’m not good enough of a person to remember going to heaven?” 

She gasps when he shows her his fist, almost hypnotized. “It’s beautiful…so bright. Could I touch it? Would it burn me?” 

She grows more serious, looking up at him. “You are an amazing man, to inherit that honor. I’m honored you are showing me this. It makes me feel…small. Petty, in comparison. Nothing I’ve ever done means much. Yes, I would love a tour.“ 

At his comments on Patsy, she suppresses a sigh. She actually hates talking about that damn show. But he is interested, so she smiles.

"I was lucky. It taught me a lot. What would you like to know?” 

Taught her a lot like how to make herself vomit and how to take a bunch, how to score dope…

Danny smiles at her. “Admit it, you hated it. I can tell. I bet all you wanted to do was stay at home and play with your sister. But still I think it was a hardship that shaped you into a beautiful woman with a smile that lights up a room and inspired people.”

They walk through the city. The people don’t seem to mind Trish’s presence; in fact, they’re downright welcoming. They make their way to a tea house, and after sitting, Danny orders some buns and tea for the two of them. The buns are crispy and flakey, warm and sweet. Just looking at the way he reacts to them anyone can tell these are his favorite things to eat. 

“Ok don’t hold this against me, but I’m about to get savage on these. So watch your fingers.” He laughs a little before fisting two buns into his mouth. “YUM! I love these so much!”

Trish exhaled in a rush, startled that Danny recognized her actual feelings and also relieved . 

“God, I did hate it. I was a little old when Jess became my sister to play with her, and not thrilled about her being around at first. But yes…I would have given a lot to have more choices.”

She continues to marvel at everything she is seeing as she walks with Danny. A feeling of peace is settling over her she cannot remember experiencing authentically before. As she relaxes at the table, she takes a bun to try for herself. 

“Wow, these really are good!”

Danny looks over at Trish and grins. “See, there you go again looking cute, it’s like a superpower being that cute. That beautiful.”

That came out like a teenager meeting his crush for the first time. Danny felt a little embarrassed saying it to Trish.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself, I just said the first thing that came to mind when I looked at you. People say I have no filter, I’m starting to see that now.” 

He continues smiling at her, finding it hard to believe she’s here. Nothing to do with her fame, just a beautiful woman sharing time with him.

Trish smiles at him softly, touched by his compliment. “I like it about you. A lot of people just want to flatter me, but I can tell you say what you mean. And that means a lot.” She steps toward him, lightly twining her fingers with his.

Danny leans forward and smiles. “Well if you don’t mind me speaking my mind then I have to ask, would you mind if I kissed you? I mean I’m just going by what you said and right now the only thing on my mind is I REALLY want to kiss the beautiful woman in front of me. So can I kiss you, Trish?”

Trish didn’t answer him verbally. Instead she leaned in, eyes gleaming, and snaked her hand around the back of his neck, pulling him close. She pressed her lips into his, soft at first, then more intently.

Danny leans into Trish’s kiss, initiating a second one as his hand embraces both sides of her face. 

“Wow…wow. I thought the buns were sweet.” 

The pair kissing is drawing some attention of some small children that plant themselves next to the table, eyes jumping from the couple to the sweet buns.

“ Oh no we’ve been caught!” Danny laughed, smiling again at Trish. “I hope you don’t mind that.”

Trish closes her eyes into Danny’s second kiss, enjoying the way he cradles her face, as though she were someone precious. She kept her eyes closed, savoring the moment, and opened them only when the children ran up. Laughing, but staying close to him, she shook her head. 

“I have a good distraction.”

“Wait a distraction? What kind of distraction? Are you gonna streak?” 

Confident in where he stands with Trish now, he continues to hold her hand. “What would you like to do now?”

“Hey, if that’s what you want, we can negotiate terms in how long you look,” she says playfully.

She pressed her front into his, wrapping an arm around his waist. “How about you show me the first thing you saw, the first time you came here?”

“I was unconscious when I first got here but wait, it’s better to show you.” 

Danny gets excited and with Trish behind, him he starts running up to the temple. Reaching the courtyard, he stops and with a child-like excitement, he points to a group of students balancing themselves on top of 20 foot tall poles using only their fingers.

“When I woke up this was the first thing I saw!” 

Letting go of Trish’s hand with a jump, flip and spin 25 feet up, Danny lands on top of a pole perfectly balanced on his toe, solid like a rock.

Trish stares, incredulous, at the students Danny is showing her. “I’m starting to wonder If I’m unconscious myself and this is some long dream.” 

When Danny joins them, she gasps, even more impressed. “I’m the only person in NYC who is ordinary, aren’t I? That’s what I’m starting to think.”

Danny jumps down and comes back to Trish, even more confident now puts his arms around her. 

“You’re far from normal, Trish, you’ve got potential and talents I wish I had. I couldn’t carry a note to save my life. Besides if you ever decided to learn Hidden Fist Style, I could always teach you.”

“Would you?” Trish perks up, obviously more than interested. “Is it something I can learn? I do know krav maga.”

“I will, but only if I can call you Grasshopper. And these lessons won’t be free, there is a steep price to be paid. And we would be working together, sometimes day and night, weeks on end. I think the kids these days call it dating. So are my conditions acceptable?” 

Not being able to resist, Danny initiates another kids, this time longer and deeper. The entire world fades away when he kisses her.

“Grasshopper? Those are kind of creepy looking. If I have to be a bug for some reason, why not a butterfly, or a dragonfly?”

She is taking him seriously, nodding as he describes his terms. “I’m not afraid of hard work. I would do what I need to learn.” 

Only after he’s kissed her and she’s kissed back with passion, pressing her body fully into his, does it dawn on her. “Wait, were you joking?”

“Joking about dating you or the nickname? Serious about dating, I would like to keep seeing you. Kidding about the nickname. The thing is we’re both kind of high profile, I’m sure it’s not a new feeling for you, but it’s a bit overwhelming for me, so will you be patient with me? Oh, question, would you be interested in doing something with Luke and your sister? Because your sister has the big lug wrapped around her finger. He’s hooked, and I want to watch how she does it.”

Danny had started walking with her again, stopping in front of a garden of rare medicinal plants, flowers and herbs. They are an incredible and beautiful sight; even Danny is in awe seeing it again. 

“I forgot how beautiful everything is here. I miss living here sometimes, but I have a life in New York that has gone ignored for too long.”

“The nickname,” Trish clarified. “I want to keep dating you. And I can be patient. It isn’t always a strength of mine, but I can do it for you.” 

Walking with Danny, she took in the nature around her with appreciation as she responded. “Sure, I wouldn’t mind doing something with Jess and Luke. Honestly I would love to see them interact, because I can see she’s really interested in him too. She doesn’t open up to people easily, so I am really interested to see her around someone who feels that way about her. Now Jess, on the other hand, may not like the idea of us tagging along with her,“ she chuckled.

Danny is about to kiss Trish once more when he’s interrupted by his phone ringing. He pauses, taking it out of his pocket, and held it at an angle so that he and Trish both could see who would dare interrupt them. Seeing it’s Luke, he answers the call, still smiling at Trish. 

“This is not a great time, Luke, I’m in the middle of something important.”

Luke explains that he needs a car since he doesn’t have one, and Danny answers quickly. 

“Of course I’ll have one delivered to your place in the morning. Is there anything else you need, brother? If not I’m gonna get back to my date.” 

Hanging up, Danny turns his attention back on Trish. “Sorry about that, Luke says hi and he wanted a car to take your sister on a trip. Hey, how do you feel about a road trip?”

Trish is listening and not bothering to pretend otherwise as Danny talks to Luke. She raises any eyebrow, startled. 

“A road trip? Jessica agreed to it? A road trip involving people and public and possible daylight hours?” She smiled, cocking her head. “Sounds good to me, but I doubt we are invited.”

Danny shrugs his shoulders when she mentions Jessica wanting to go on a trip. “I’m just as shocked and curious as you which is why we should tag along, for science and the betterment of mankind. Besides it’s my car, I can do what I want with it. I said I’d lend it to him, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t come along for the ride. I want to tease and give my best friend crap for hundreds of miles.”

“I see. Sneaky and devilish…Jess will want to kill us.” Trish grinned, clapping Danny affectionately on the shoulder. “Which is why I want to do it. I haven’t enough chance to make her crazy lately, too much real life crazy for the fun kind. So question is, do we tell them we’re coming or casually announce last minute? Make them sweat, or spring it on them?”

“You want to hide in the trunk or something? Or I’ll get a car with dark tinted windows, we sit in the back seat and wait. Maybe make out a little, it’s a win-win for me. We should get back and set things up then, and you need to pack a bag.” 

Danny wrapped an arm around Trish’s waist. “Are you sure you’re good with this? Our actual second date will be a long car trip. If you want, wherever we stop, I’ll pay for a separate room for you. Just because we made out a little, I don’t want to make any assumptions for you. No pressure. I promise. ”

“Awesome, now we get a turn being the secret agent spies. I like it.”

Trish leans back into Danny, covering his arm with her hand. “How about we play it by ear with rooms? I say there’s no better way to really get to know someone than a long car trip, and I’m a risk taking woman.”


	7. Chapter 7

Luke is up early and making a few calls, one to Danny to arrange borrowing a car, one to arrange for Jessica’s door to be repaired and reinforced, and the last to have some doughnuts and coffee delivered. Once he’s finished, he returns to Jessica’s apartment with the food.

“Hey everything is set, Danny is sending a car to the club for us to borrow and some friends of mine will come while we’re gone to take care of your door.” He leaned in to give her a kiss, holding a glazed doughnut in front of her. “How long you need to get ready?”

Jessica is reaching greedily for the coffee that Luke is carrying, nearly more interested in this than his kiss. She is far from a morning person. Taking a long gulp and making a face when she immediately burns her tongue, she comments, “Coffee. Mm. Better with whiskey, but still good.” 

She takes another swallow before answering. “I need about the two minutes, I pack light. Not exactly high maintenance here.”

Jessica is not as impressed by the vehicle as Luke. For someone who rarely drives, how she gets from one place to the next has never been important to her. She shrugged, acknowledging. 

"Looks expensive." 

In the backseat, Trish snickers, covering her mouth with one hand as she huddles close to Danny. 

"You have a point. Maybe we should make a sweaty handprint on the glass before they get in. You know, like Titanic." 

Jessica slides into the front seat but then freezes, whipping her head around. "I smell perfume. Trish, what the fuck are you doing in here? No, absolutely not, get out, now!”

Luke threw their bags into the bed of the truck, getting in shortly after Jessica did. Glancing over at her, he sees the shock and outrage in her face and frowns.

"What's up Jessica? " 

Looking into the back seat and seeing Danny and Trish cuddled up, his face matches Jessica's. 

"Jesus! Danny, what the hell!" 

Danny gives a sly grin. "Heeeyyy this isn't Kun-Lun, how did we get here?" He smiles at Trish then laughs as he says, “It was her idea, I'm just a victim, she used her feminine wiles and shattered my little mind." 

Luke wants to laugh but looks at Jessica again and decides he better not.

"Both of you out now!"

"Come on Luke I never get to go to interesting places!”

"Danny you were literally in a magical mountain city the other day,” Luke points out.

Danny turns to Jessica now. 

"Let us come and I'll pay for everything...EVERYTHING! And I'll let you keep the truck."

Mentioning the truck would usually enough to convince Luke, but it's not his decision.

"It’s not up to me, its Jessica's decision."

"For a monk, you just told a big fat lie," Trish countered, giving Danny a playful push. "It was not my idea, I just said it sounded like a good one."

"No," Jessica said flatly, giving Trish a death glare. "Absolutely not. Bye, Patsy." 

"Oh, right, did I tell you about that?" Trish said to her excitedly, ignoring her. "Going to that heaven city, it was so amazing, Jess! And I remembered it, which means I'm a good person at heart! I wasn't sure I would qualify but I did, it was really so beautiful and peaceful. You should let Danny take you, I think you could really use the trip. And if I remember it I know you would."

"Save him the trip, I know I wouldn't remember it if it depends on me meeting some "good person" criteria," Jessica rolled her eyes. "Not kidding,Trish. Out." 

"Jess, come on, we never spend time together anymore, we haven't had a vacation together since we were sixteen!" Trish said earnestly. 

"Yeah and that was so much fun at the time, now I totally can't wait to relive the pain," Jessica deadpanned.

"That was because Mom was there. This is different! Please, come on, I'll let you pick the music." 

Jessica blew out her breath, looking at Luke. "You better be damn glad I just had coffee and donuts."

"So wait, the hours of sex isn't the reason you're in a good mood…fried dough and caffeine?" Luke smirks at Jessica, then starts the engine and starts to pull out. 

Danny leans back, putting his arm around Trish. "See told you, total push over."

"Push over my ass! You said you're gonna pay for everything and I'm gonna hold you to that,” Luke informed him. “Oh and I was already gonna keep the truck anyway!"

Danny shrugs his shoulders. "I was gonna get you something for your birthday anyway, consider this an early present." 

Luke reaches over to hold Jessica's hand while he drives. "Anyway Jessica Jones, meet Danny Rand. Looks like your sister is pretty familiar with him." 

Danny kicks the back of Luke's seat. "Are we there yet are we there yet?"

"I swear I'm gonna make you pay for this Danny, I'm gonna order fine the most expensive hotel I can find and order so much room service!"

"Yep, sorry for the ego bust," Jessica smirked. "We could have skipped all that and skipped to caffeine." 

But she is smiling a little, not meaning it. Until Danny's comment, that is.

"Watch it or I push you right out of this vehicle, I don't care whose name is on the title." 

Trish grins, looking far too pleased with herself as she gets herself comfortable. "She probably isn't kidding. One time when my mom pissed her off, she broke every single teen choice award I ever won. I didn't care and she knew it, but she knew it would absolutely devastate Mom."

Jessica actually grinned at that memory. "Good times."

Trish, seeing Luke holding her hand, brightened. In a stage whisper she says to him, "You're magic. I didn't think Jessica knew it was possible to hold hands even if someone isn't literally close to having one get detached."

Jessica flipped her off with the hand not in Luke's.

Danny is impressed by both Trish's awards and Jessica demolition of them. "How many awards have you won?" 

Luke pulling onto the highway. "So how about Atlantic City? What do you say Danny...Ladies? By the way, Trish, did Danny tell you how he has a fear of butterflies? Now discuss that for a bit you two." 

Luke grins at Jessica even as Danny kicks his seat again.

"I don't know, I guess six? One a year from ages 11 to 17," Trish mused. "No, five, I skipped one year." 

"How could you forget? I thought Dorothy would commit murder or suicide," Jessica muttered. 

"Sounds good to me," Trish said in response to Luke suggesting Atlantic city, and Jessica nodded noncommitally. At his comment about the butterflies, Jessica snorted, and Trish looked at him quizzically. 

"Really, why?"

"Come on Trish, it's obvious. They're small, colorful, toothless, terrifying."

"They creep me out and I don't want to talk about it," Danny pouts. "So Jessica, according to Luke I hear you're a Private Investigator, do anything for any big clients? I've been trying to find some information or something and.." 

“DANNY NO! I don't want her involved with that! It's too dangerous!" 

"Ok Luke, sorry I'll find another way."

Both men suddenly get silent. Danny leans in to Trish, Luke continues to hold Jessica's hand as he drives. From Harlem, Atlantic City is a little over a 2 hour drive. With about 30 miles to go Luke pulls into a gas station. 

"I'm gonna grab some water, top off the tank, be right back."

He gets out and goes inside leaving Danny with the girls.

"Sorry about making things awkward, I wasn't thinking clearly, when I started to offer you that job. So my bad."

Jessica and Trish both stared at Luke after his outburst. Jessica with suspicion, Trish with concern. Once Luke is out of earshot, Jessica turns back to Danny. "I can make my own decision, I'm a big girl. Tell me what you had in mind."

Danny is not sure it's his place to go against Luke's wishes, but she's right, she should decide for herself. 

"It’s not like I want you to go fight someone, look even with my resources I'm in shortage of allies I can trust. And wouldn't even begin to know where to hire a private Investigator that I can trust, Luke trust you, therefore I trust you. I've been tracking an organization called The Hand, an ancient sect of Ninjas with deep ties in crime, human trafficking, even murder for hire. And before you say it yes, Ninjas are real! I just need to know where they're keeping a shipment of people they smuggled into the country, I tracked them to the harbor but lost the trail."

Luke gets back into the truck with an arm full of water and snacks, immediately noticing something is up. 

"Danny, what did you do? I told you no!"

"She's a grown woman and I trust her, don't you?" 

Luke lets out a deep sigh, before he had seen her panic attack he would have asked her to help himself, but now he's not willing to add to anymore trauma. But he can tell just looking at her, it's not his call anymore. 

"Well I guess there is no questioning this anymore."

Danny looks at Jessica and at Trish. "I think we may need them, both let's be real, both of them can go places neither of us can." 

"Look can we save all this till we get back and read them in then?" Starting the engine again and pulling off. "Sorry Jessica, I should have asked you and not have big mouth back there spring it on you."

Jessica listens to Danny intently, brow furrowed. She only has to consider briefly before shrugging. 

"Sure, I can do it. My best try anyway. What the hell. And aren't you a ninja, why wouldn't I believe it?" 

Trish is more reserved, but not enough to discourage her. "What do you know so far? Any names?" 

When Luke returns, Jessica raised an eyebrow at him, somewhat irritated. "You don't get to answer for me. If Danny thinks I can help it's his call and mine, not yours. What is the problem?" 

Trish leans forward, interested. "Are you just worried because it could be dangerous, Luke, or is there a reason you're concerned for Jessica specifically? And what can I do to help?"

"Forget it, you're as subtle as an elephant," Jessica snorted. "Hey, he said I could help!"

Luke nods, not willing to argue with Jessica when he knows she's right, but he will keep an eye on her. "Danny, it's your operation, and other than me busting heads even I don't know what the plan is." 

Danny pauses before speaking. " Jessica, you've been doing your thing for a while now, I bet you got lots of sources and access street level. Anything you need that my money can buy is yours to use. Trish, you're as high profile as it gets, not to mention having a talk show gets you lots of access to the city's movers and shakers. I have no clue who to talk to. I have one name to go on...Alexandra Reid."

"So you think I can smile and sweet talk people, and Jessica can do the sneaky thing? Sure, it would be cool if I can be the slinking cat detective one just once though," Trish said.

Jessica gave her a disbelieving look. "Your hair glows in the dark. You do not slink." To Danny she said, "Got it. I'll go with that. So we gambling tonight or what?"

Danny smiles at Trish. "Don't forget your also have to focus on your training, I don't plan on putting anyone in anymore danger than necessary but we should be prepared. And Trish, I really like your smile."

Luke looks back over his shoulder at Trish and Danny, proud of his matchmaking skills, also if Trish is happy he's sure Jessica will be happy. 

"Gambling sounds good to me. Who want to see how much of Danny's money we can spend before his bank calls to investigate!"

"Ha, sounds like a challenge I can handle." Jessica's usually tense posture is more relaxed than usual, and she feels almost calm. She wouldn't admit it, but so far having the Sappy Duo doesn't suck.

"Aw, you have a great smile too," Trish told Danny. "Show me?" 

Jessica mimes gagging. Never mind, they suck.

Luke also starts gagging." God tell me we aren't like them? So sweet I'm gonna get a cavity."

Danny leans in to kiss Trish and smiles. "Ignore them, bunch of grumpy people that are jealous." 

"Ain't nobody jealous of your puppy love." Luke looks over at Jessica. "The real thing is up here." 

Luke pulls into the valet at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Atlantic City. It looked like the most expensive place he saw. 

"Yeah this will do, I bet we can do some serious damage to Danny's trust fund, what do you think? Oh by the way I know Jessica's and my sleeping arrangements, but just what will yours be Mr. Rand, Ms. Walker, huh huh huuuhhh?" 

He knew getting to see Trish and Danny squirm a little would make Jessica's day just as much as spending an obsessive amount of someone's else's money.

Danny, unsure of this himself, is indeed squirming. 

"We haven't really discussed this yet. We actually don't know each other...like that."

"Oh damn Danny, I was just messing with you, I didn't mean to imply anything." 

Now Luke is the one squirming.

"The real thing? You guys have had the love talk already?" Trish perks up, curious. 

Jessica flushes deeply and doesn't answer. She is definitely relieved when the spotlight shifts back to Trish and Danny. 

"Come on, Monk Man, no need to play shy, you might still be a virgin but no one else is in the car. It is 2020, you know."

"Jessica! Leave him alone," Trish scolded, touching Danny's arm. "Ignore her, she has a handicap. She's missing a part of her brain called tact."

Danny, looks at everyone, confused. "Wait, what? First of all I'm not a monk. I'm the Immortal Iron Fist, warrior of Kun-Lun, I was raised by monks but I'm not a monk! Second I'm not a virgin you MORONS! Luke, you knew Colleen!"

Luke shrugs and grins. "Your first time will happen someday, I'm sure of it." 

Danny points his finger at Luke and is about to say something but instead takes Trish's hand and starts walking.

" You suck Cage, I hope they run out of the wax you use to shine that big head of yours."

"Wait wax?" 

Danny gets to the counter to check in. As usual once he tells someone who he is, shit goes into motion, a swarm of staff descend on the group, taking bags and kissing asses.

"Damn Danny I knew you were rich and your name had some weight, but this is a little much." 

They're led to a private elevator that takes them to a penthouse which takes up an entire corner of the hotel. It's 2 stories high with 2 bedroom suites. The ass kissing continues as the staff leaves the group and the manager personally delivers the marker to Danny for gambling.

"Everyone get settled in and we can head to the casino, how about 10k a piece to start?"

"So, what you're saying is, you've never had sex once, not ever, and you've never seen anyone naked except your friend, Colin," Jessica summarized, hiding a grin. "No need to be ashamed, Trish likes a challenge, don't you?"

Trish reached up to swat Jessica in the back of the head. "Don't pay attention to her, she's jealous." Ignoring Jessica's snort of "of what, your virgin monk man?" Trish patted Danny's arm, saying earnestly, "It's okay if you are a virgin, it's kind of sweet." 

Jessica guffawed, still enjoying messing with them both as they enter the penthouse. Trish isn't overly taken aback, having seen Danny's home, but Jessica looks down at her usual very casual clothes with raised eyebrows. 

"They gonna kick me out or spit on me for not wearing a dress made of gold?" At Luke's comment, she smiles, already scheming. "You might regret this. That's a hell of a lot of trouble I can cause and booze I can drink."

"Seriously Trish you too? I swear, I’d rather be elbow deep in murderous ninja right now. I'm gonna take a shower before I go downstairs, I'll catch up later."

As Danny walks away he holds up his glowing right hand, extending his middle finger to Luke. “Ladies…Tiny Tim.”

Luke laughs at Danny. "Tiny who?? And that is clearly an abuse of your powers."

"So report me, by the way Jessica, you look fine and if anyone says anything about how you're dressed or tries to kick you out, I'll buy this place and turn it into a Chuckie Cheese!"

Luke steps to Jessica putting his arms around her. "He's right, you're perfect just how you are. Now let’s head down."

Luke moves and takes Jessica's hand and heads for the door, looking back at Trish. "You coming with us or you gonna wait for Danny?"

"Tiny Tim? Is that a penis metaphor?" Jessica quipped.

Trish giggled but tried to hide it, clearing her throat. "Um, I could use a shower too. Freshen up before we get started." 

"Oooh Danny, looks like the virgin status is changing fast," Jessica cracked. 

This time Trish flipped her off jokingly before catching up to Danny, discussing the room arrangements; she wants to start with separate rooms but leave it open to negotiation. Jessica is glad when Luke takes her hand, tightening her grip. Part of her relentless teasing was nervousness; she rarely specializes, especially in loud, crowded, public places. She is worried she might get panicked and itching for a drink to lessen the chance.

Danny pauses to wait for Trish to catch up. 

“There are only 2 bedrooms but I'm fine sleeping on the floor." 

Moving down the hallway he reaches the first bedroom, opening the door to go in, taking off his jacket and shirt exposing scars across his back and shoulders. Across his chest is a tattoo of a black dragon." You can go first if you want."

Downstairs Luke and Jessica arrive in the casino, Luke's eyes widened looking around. Holding Jessica close by he spots a waitress walking by. Stopping her, he smiles.

" Yeah we're gonna need two glasses of bourbon every 20 minutes. Keep that pace and there is 100 dollar tip in it for you." 

The waitress agrees happily goes off to get the drinks. 

"So Jessica, what's your game, roulette, poker, maybe blackjack? Or all of them it's not our money!"

"Oh...no, that's silly," Trish decides. "There's no need for that. We can share a bed. I'm sure that's more fun." 

She smiled, but her smiled dropped when she saw Danny's scars, and she sucked in her breath. 

"Danny...what happened to you?" 

Jessica relaxes some when Luke orders the drinks. He gets it. Looking up at him, she shrugs.

"Hell, let's try it all. If we suck, you said it, not our money to lose."

Danny looks over his shoulder at Trish and his scarred back, taking a deep breath before he speaks.

"I've been the sole protector of Kun-Lun for a long time, I fought off hundreds, maybe thousands of invaders. There was no way I could do that without paying a price for it. I'm not invulnerable like Luke, Its difficult but I still get hurt."

Danny looks over at the bed, confused. "What happened to playing it by ear?"

Downstairs Luke steps up to a blackjack table placing a 100 dollar chip down, moments later the waitress walks up with their drinks. 

"Thanks, don't forget same order 20 minutes from now." Holding up his glass to Jessica. "Here's to being on vacation and spending other people's money. So Jessica, what would you like to do besides drinking and gambling? Want to find someplace that has steaks the size of a hubcap?"

Trish looks at Danny with pain in her expression. She has been hurt herself; her mother physically abused her as a child, and she had been hit and even choked by men before. But nothing had ever scarred, certainly not this badly. She came forward, slowly touching his scarred back with tenderness. 

"We can share a bed without sex, if we choose not to have it. It would be nice to be near you."

Jessica clinked her glass with Luke’s, smiling, and started in on her second drink.

"I always felt weird letting Trish pay for shit for me, but I think that was the poor little orphan syndrome. This I can take." She doubles Luke's bet. "Sounds good. No karaoke though."

Luke cocks an eye brow. "Umm why not? I bet it would be fun, you look all Joan Jett but I bet you're all Britney Spears on the inside. Bet we can find “Cray cray” for your sister. Yeah I looked it up, kind of made me wish I could blow my own brains out. It was bad Jessica..really...Really bad!"

Danny turns and smiles at Trish, putting his arms around her. "Just holding each other huh? Sounds nice but no cheating in the middle of the night and jumping my bones. Not that I would fight you." Leaning in softly kissing her at first, then more intensely. "You're an amazing woman, Trish."

Jessica slammed her glass down, fixing him with a hard stare. "I am NOT Britney fucking Spears. God, please do not put Trish anywhere near one of those places! You know what her favorite song when she's drunk is? "I believe I can fly." Complete with flapping arm motions. Not a joke." 

She mock shudders, placing another bet and shrugging when it loses. "You know the bitch just put a post recording me singing on her Twitter? I can’t even delete it, only reason I have a clue is she showed me how many comments it got, all thrilled with herself. Think she's actually jealous."

Trish kisses Danny, soft, then with more intensity, leaning into his bare chest and wrapping her arms around him. "I'm just trying to keep up with the man in front of me."

Luke nods in agreement to Jessica and smiles at the same time he takes out his phone to text Danny.   
"Karaoke?"

Sliding his drink to Jessica. "Here, you're gonna need this."

Danny, still kissing Trish, felt his phone vibrating in his pocket, which is great timing because holding Trish so close was causing an awakening in his pants and considering sex is off the table for the night this was going to get awkward.

Pulling away from Trish, he looks down at his phone and grins. "Karaoke? Sounds fun, what do you think, you want to do Karaoke tonight? " 

As much as Danny would love to stay there alone with Trish, having fun as a group is idea for now. And take some pressure off of them as a couple.

Jessica narrowed her eyes at Luke suspiciously. "Why? Why will I need this?" She snatched his phone from him and her read the text, immediately taking on a fierce glower. 

"No. I did not agree to this. It is not possible for me to get drunk enough to sing, let alone listen to Trish make some effort at singing!"

Trish, meanwhile, brightens, giving an enthused nod. "Yes! Sounds fun. Good luck tricking Jess into it, though."

Luke shrugs. "Fine you can be Debbie Downer and just sit there and drink while the rest of us have fun and not give a damn about how embarrassing it will be. But I won't make you do anything you don't want to do." Making another bet and watching the dealer get blackjack. "Are you a wizard? How have I not won a single hand?"

Danny slowly calmed himself down so it's not as awkward when he stands close to her. " Well we better think of something, maybe after I get out of the shower something will come to me." 

"Debbie Downer? God, you're seventy on the inside." 

Jessica rolled her eyes, but something about how Luke bad spoke bugs her. She turns back to him, pride sparking up, asking abruptly, "You're not trying to say I'm scared to do stupid karaoke, are you? I'm not. It's just lame." 

Trish starts to fix her hair, pulling it up in an elegant twist, and changes into a snug, low cut, but classy, if skimpy dark red dress that is cut to show most of her back.

Danny comes out of the bathroom a towel wrapped around his waist, his eyes widened and jaw drops when he sees Trish. Pointing in her direction, he stutters, "Ummm can I have that??" 

Shaking his head trying to get the blood flowing back up there. "I meant my bag...my bag is your behind…I mean it’s behind you, not your behind!"

His attempt to come to his senses fail, he's pretty much a shuddering idiot at the moment, finally stringing together a complete thought. 

"You're just beautiful!"

Luke is pretty much over this whole gambling thing. Even if it's not his money it still sucks to lose. 

"No baby, I don't think you're afraid, I just think you are just feeling fear, filled with apprehension." He grinned at her after he pretty much just defined the meaning of afraid. "You know what, I'm over gambling, it's not as fun as I thought it would be, let's just walk around a bit."

Luke is about to leave the table when he sees the waitress that's been serving them getting harassed by what looks like 3 rejects from MMA. 

"Now this looks like fun. You want to handle that while I cash out? And babe, don't break any bones, don't want to spend the night dealing with cops."

Trish blinks, feigning innocent confusion at Danny's stammering, and tilts her head. 

"Have what? Have me? Won't Luke and Jessica start to wonder what happened to us? Then again, it would stop all the virgin teasing." 

She grinned, taking a step towards him and touching his jaw, closing it. 

"I think you have drool. And thank you."

Jessica's spine stiffens, and she draws herself up to her full height, her eyebrows slanting sharply. "I am NOT afraid to fucking sing, I am NOT filled with fear or apprehension, or any other synonym for afraid, Luke Cage!" 

The distraction of the hassled waitress is welcome to her now that her pride is injured and she's starting to be pissed off. Glad for something to focus her anger on, Jessica wheels around without a word, noting the people Luke had indicated, and stalked over to them, weaving purposefully around the people in the way to reach them. She doesn't waste time with threats or small talk. Instead she merely lifts up one man in each hand by their throats, holding them up above her waist, and then slammed them both down to the ground, letting them hit at full force.

She repeats the move with the third, then says flatly, "Your patronage has expired. Once you think you can get up without pissing yourself, do it. Fast."

After cashing out, Luke waits till Jessica is done with the 3 idiots before stepping behind her sliding his arms around her waist, he leans in and kisses her cheek. 

"I bet that felt good and look no broken bones, nice job beautiful, how about we fine some place dark and quiet to have a drink?" Luke places a thousand dollar chip on the waitress's tray and smiles at her. "Thank you for your hospitality and there is a little extra for having to deal with those assholes. "

Danny is about to explode, when Trish touches his face, her smiles. Her smell her body is more than he can take. He drops his towel on the floor, showing her the effect she's having on him, and reaches behind her, undoing her dress till it drops to the floor.

"I can't resist it any longer, everything thing about you has my body screaming take her to the bed!" 

Scooping her up in his arms, he carries her to the edge of the bed and lays her down.

"If you want me to stop this is your last chance." 

Gliding his fingers along her legs, her soft skin giving off a sweet scent, he waits. Her smile is as bright as any star in the sky, the lingering taste of her lips excites him more and more.

Jessica is still running on adrenaline, scowling, even as Luke slides his arms around her. Not adverse to his suggestion, she nods, but then turns her head to look him in the eye, still stuck on his "redefinition." 

"I'm not scared of something as stupid as singing in public." 

"Jessica, I know you're not afraid of a damn thing, you just need to remember we're on vacation and we here to have fun,” Luke said quietly. 

This had not been the effect Trish expected but it is far from unwelcome. Grinning as Danny revealed his arousal to her, deeply satisfied, she wrapped her arms around his neck and ground herself against him, nipping his lower lip and dragging it between her teeth before breathing out, "I believe our take it a step at a time just turned into flying, and I am very okay with that."

Danny sliding his hand between her legs, gently moving his fingers up her inner thigh, kissing her neck and ears then her lips, slowly slipping his tongue into between her lips and his fingers inside her. First one then two slowly moving them in and out of her, getting himself even harder. 

"Screw flying, I feel like I'm on a rocket to the moon!"

Trish's eyes gleamed with her enjoyment at Danny's pleasure. She wrapped her legs around his waist, arching her neck and closing her eyes as he hit her center. Sucking in a sharp breath, she dug long nails into his shoulders, thrusting her hips in rhythm to match his. 

Jessica exhaled, trying to lighten up. Finishing her drink, she nudged her shoulder against Luke's. 

"Lets go then. Those two obviously are having a sex detour, god knows how long they'll be."

Luke looks down at his watch and laughs. "Yeah they're definitely having sex right now. Probably very very boring sex. Probably means you're off the hook for Karaoke tonight." 

Holding Jessica seems so natural now as if its something he's been doing all his life. Something he would love to do for the rest of his life.

Danny moves faster and harder, his face buried in Trish's neck kissing and licking the salty sweat dripping down. When he feels himself swelling to the point of cumming he stops, changing positions so Trish is on top of him, using his hips to move inside her.

Jessica relaxes further under Luke's arm. It feels right, comforting, calm, and familiar, a place she should be. She leans her head against his shoulder briefly, then pulls away, tugging at his hand.

"I might not want to sing, but dancing wasn’t that bad, the other day." 

Trish is breathing hard, her chest heaving, hair falling out of its careful arrangement and tickling Danny's chest. She squeezes her thighs together to prolong the sensation of Danny inside her, crying out as she came into a climax.

Finishing shorty before her, Danny sits up wrapping his arms around Trish, laughing and kissing her. 

"I don't think we're gonna catch up with Luke and Jessica tonight, I don't want to be anywhere else but here right now."

Luke likes this idea even better than gambling or singing, the chance to feel Jessica's body against him in a dark club could lead to all kinds of fun. 

"Dancing sounds great! I think doing anything other than gambling sounds fun." Looking around and listening out for music not hearing any. "Let's just start walking, I'm sure we'll find a club or something, hell we can just go to the truck and turn on the radio, as long as I'm with you I'll be happy. "

Trish smiled lazily, turning on her side to face him. Still breathing a little hard, she rested her hand on his chest, trailing it over his torso slowly.

"I think I can safely assure them you're no virgin now." 

Jessica nodded, beginning to weave her way through the people to the casino exit. She reached back to take Luke's hand, a first for her to initiate this, and told herself it was practicality not to be separated in the crowd, not sappiness. Still, even once they are out on the street, she doesn’t let go.

Danny turns on his side, leaning on his elbow. "The only one I care what they think of me is you. For now on it's my mission to make sure when you think of me you smile...I want to be the one that makes you Cray cray." 

He rolls away laughing so she can't hit him.

Luke walks along with Jessica, holding hands and occasionally pausing for a kiss or cuddle. After a few blocks they finally find a club with what has to be the worst techno house pop crap music he's ever heard. He stands next to Jessica in front of the doors.

"Any port in a storm I guess, and it can't be that bad…right???"

Trish made a mock offended noise, pushing at him with the heel of her hand. "Hey, I was 20, give me a break! It was a cool saying then!" 

Softening, she smiled genuinely, looking down at him. "You do make me smile. You make me feel like someone real. Someone worth being." 

For Trish, this is rare. She spends most of her time striving to be more and better, extraordinary. 

Jessica made a face but sighed, resigning herself. "Maybe we can put in some requests. I guess we can cool this place up."

Luke smirks at Jessica. "Do you hear that? Only way to cool this place up is 20 gallons of gasoline and a match." 

He definitely sees why she jokes about him being an old soul now, he has a very particular choice in music. But he pays the 20 dollar each for cover, holding Jessica's hand so they don't get separated as they hit the bar first, ordering 2 beers to start.

"This place sucks but probably does triple the business my place does."

Leading her towards the dance floor, he awkwardly tries to find the beat to the music. "I don't think I can get drunk enough to dance to this." Still he's with her, so it’s still fun for him.

Danny moves back to Trish and cuddles up to her, the idea of being with someone again is something he didn't think could happen. 

"You make me happy too Trish. Remember when I said I wanted you to be patient with me in public because I'm not used to being in public? Forget that, I want to be with you in private, in public, it's all the same to me, in fact there is a charity event Rand is holding to raise money for youth outreach. You know, to help young folks like Wendell. I'd like you to be there with me, if you want to of course. I don't want to pressure you."

Jessica stares at him blankly for a second, then snorts. "Do you realize that fire is basically the opposite of cool? Were you going for irony, or do you suck at analogies?" 

She tenses a little as Luke leads her through the crowd, edgy around the people, but relaxed when he gets them the beers. She drinks some of hers and takes it with her to the dance floor, then turns so she is pressing her back into Luke's front, wrapping his arm around her waist. She is still very awkward about dancing, without rhythm, but rubs herself slowly against him. 

Trish curls into him, her eyes widening with surprise and pleasure. She sucks in a breath, then nods, her smile growing almost shy. "I'd like that."

Danny softly laughs. "I usually try to get an intense workout out in before I sleep, I definitely don't need that right now, but I do need another shower, you want me to wash your back?" 

As much as he doesn't want to he gets out of bed holding out his hand to Trish beckoning her to join him.

Luke pretty much just blocks out every one and thing around him, only focusing on Jessica, finally finding a rhythm with her body. 

"Have you been practicing? Or is it just you need terrible music to dance?" Sliding his hands over her flat stomach and pressing himself against her, he buries his face in her neck.

Trish laughs too, shaking her head at him even as she agrees. "Have to say I need one too. You just messed up my hair and makeup, boy."

She clearly doesn't mind. Standing with him, taking his hand, she follows him into the bathroom. Turning on the shower, she pulls him in with her, playfully holding out the soap. 

"Practicing? Who the hell would I be practicing with, Trish?" Jessica scoffed. "Jesus, don't even suggest such a thing, she would take it seriously." 

She half closed her eyes, covering his huge hand with hers as she smiled at the difference in their size. His hand practically covers her entire stomach. As he pressed his face into her neck, Jessica shivers in pleasure. 

"Fucking dare anyone to hit on my man." 

She didn't realize the thought was spoken until she heard it, and she flushes scarlet, hoping he didn't hear or thinks she's just drunk. Hell, maybe she is a little. She'll chalk it up to that.

Luke definitely heard her being so close to her, even with the loud music,but he didn't call her on it, instead he just kisses her cheek. 

"I love you Jessica."

After taking a shower with Trish, Danny orders some room service and sets it up so he and Trish can eat in bed, cuddle up together.

" I know it's not a night on the town with your sister, which is kinda what we came on this trip to do, but I think doing our own thing is a better plan. And we can always have breakfast with them…or depending if I get my energy back up, we have more Happy Naked Time together. Maybe lunch...maybe dinner."

"Ah, they won't care if we let them be the rest of the trip," Trish said playfully. "They didn't exactly invite us, after all." 

She fed Danny a bite, then reached to take a bite of his meal. "But I do really want to make Jess sing. For my own amusement if nothing else." 

Jessica smiled, trying to hide it, remaining relaxed. She tapped her fingers three times against his arm, an unspoken "I love you" of her own. It is the closest she can come to saying so right now.


	8. Chapter 8

Early the next morning Luke, waking shortly before Jessica, jumps in the shower, then after getting dressed, he quietly makes his way back to a sleeping Jessica. He gently traces the lines of her figure over the sheets clinging to her and smiles before leaving her to sleep. He leaves quietly out their bedroom and walks to the living room. Danny had already been up for a couple of hours working out, practicing fighting forms, when he catches Luke in the corner of his eye.

He stops and grins at him. 

"Hey drunky, how ya feeling? You two got in real late and were real drunk, I bet your head is killing you." 

"Actually I'm good, whatever that experiment did to me seems to dampen the effects of alcohol on me." 

“Heh that must suck, must cost you a fortune to get a buzz." 

Luke smirks "Actually it costs you a fortune to get me buzzed."

Danny laughs real loud, but Luke shushes him. “Quiet! Jessica is still sleeping, by the way you two ditched us last night. Not that I'm complaining about it. But I thought you and Trish wanted to hang out?" 

Danny goes back to practicing but has a goofy grin on his face. Luke knows immediately what that means. 

"Oh...OH! Well I'm happy for you two, Danny, really brother, after how you and Colleen ended things I was a little worried. You need someone like Trish."

Danny grins at Luke. "Yeah I know, I need more than my mission to complete me."

"Whoa she completes you, I didn't say all that, I just wanted you out that damn penthouse. But I get what you feel, it's the same with Jessica. It's like I found a piece of a puzzle that I lost and it’s finally in place. Anyway gonna order some room service, don't be offended when a platter of bacon arrives."

Luke finds the tablet the hotel supplies to order services like room service and massages, maybe he'll get one for Jessica later.

Trish is also an early riser, although not quite as early as Danny. Hearing the men talking, she stretches and pops the vertebrae of her back, yawning. She didn’t drink enough to be hung over last night, so she feels relaxed, well rested, and very sexually satisfied. Getting out of bed and taking the time to make it- hotel or not, she is a stickler for neatness and cleanliness, courtesy of being raised by Dorothy Walker- she dresses in her usual yoga pants and sports bra, slipping into the bathroom to wash her face, brush her teeth, and pull her hair up in a ponytail. She isn’t self-conscious about working out in front of the men, so she joins them in the living room, smiling and nodding towards them.

“Morning.” 

She pauses to wrap an arm around Danny’s waist mid move, distracting him with a kiss to the side of his ear, and then let go, easily popping down on the floor and starting her own stretches. She continues to talk easily as she eases into this routine, not even slightly out of breath. 

“Do you do any sort of work outs other than lifting weights, Luke? Wait, weights would be ridiculously easy for you, what do you lift, then? Cars? You should try yoga, it helps with flexibility, and it’s pretty common for muscular people to have limited flexibility.” 

Jessica, on the other hand, is not an early riser; ordinarily, she only sleeps every second or third day, and when she does, she is very much adverse to getting up once she’s finally managed to pass out. Last night had been an unusually good night’s sleep for her; she hadn’t struggled to drift off, sleeping close to Luke, and she hadn’t been plagued by nightmares as she so frequently was. She had stirred slightly when Luke brushed his hand over her, enjoying the touch but not enough to reveal she was somewhat awake, and continued to feign sleep in hopes he would go away for a while.

Unlike Trish, she had drunk more than enough for a hangover. Getting up was not something she was intending to do any time soon. 

Only now she could hear Trish’s altogether too chipper voice, chattering away as though it was not the crack of dawn. Well, maybe Jessica didn’t actually know what time it was, but it felt like it was to her. 

“Some people are on vacation and trying to sleep!” she shouted, barely moving her head enough so the words were directed towards the door rather than into her pillow. “Some people who don’t idolize Aerobics Barbie videos to the point that they hop out of bed and start bending into shapes better suited for pretzels than humans!” 

Trish continued to smile calmly, continuing her movements. 

“And good morning to you, Jess, from those of us who enjoy all parts of the day.”

“Those of you who are psychos!”

Luke gives Trish a slight smirk." I don't really need to workout, my body kind of does its own thing, besides people tend to frown on large black men bench pressing their cars." 

Danny gets down on the floor with Trish, stretching with her. "Luke is a freak, he gets stronger just breathing."

Luke shrugs his shoulders. "Yeah sometimes I feel like the world is made out of glass and if I'm not careful I can shatter it."

Luke and Danny look at each other and laugh when Jessica calls out.

"I take it she's not a morning person, you better get her some breakfast fast."

"She'll be ok once I get some coffee and doughnuts in her." Luke yells over his shoulder to Jessica. "BABY YOU GETTING UP? OR DO WE NEED TO PERFORM LAST RITES?"

"Wow. Is that true? Is there something about the interaction of whatever mutant genes you have and the oxygen you breathe in adding to your body's muscle mass?" Trish pauses, intrigued. "Can we test that somehow?" 

Jessica grunted unintelligibly before replying. "I'll go for burial. Death sounds peaceful. Sleep forever and it's QUIET." 

Trish snickers, shaking her head. "Funny thing is, actually telling her she should sleep when she's obviously tired gets a similar reaction."

Just as Luke is about to respond to Trish there is a knock at the door. Luke leaves to answer and returns with a room service cart. He pours Jessica a cup of coffee, then answers Trish.

"Danny is exaggerating a little, and just how did you plan on testing this theory?" 

Danny springs to his feet when he smells the coffee, making his way to it pouring about 80 percent sugar 20 percent coffee.

"Trust me I've hit him full power a few times, the shockwave leveled everything for 30 feet. All that big lug felt was his palm sting a little."

"Yeah but the first time I took a punch from you brought me to my knees and I saw little birdies. I'm gonna go raise the dead, be right back." 

Luke grabs some doughnuts and goes to his and Jessica's bedroom. "Come on Jessica, I got you some coffee and doughnuts, this should bring you back to the land of the living."

Danny starting to feel the sugar and caffeine kicking in as he pours a cup for Trish. "How do you take it? Cream and Sugar? Black?"

Trish stares at Danny's coffee, eyes wide at the amount if sugar in it. She raises her eyebrows, stunned. 

"How do you drink that and continue to function? I would be bouncing like Tigger...well you do look very bouncy. You and Jess really are opposites, she drinks gets completely black and in the same way she drinks whiskey. All one gulp at a time."

She smiles, shaking her head, as she tells her coffee preference. "One cream, one sugar. You know, minimalism." Accepting the cup, she takes a sip, still in lotus pose, and then sets it in the table behind her. "I'm ready to learn whatever you want to teach, you know."

In the bedroom, Jessica cracks open one eye, narrowing it towards Luke to make sure he does have what he says he does. Rolling over slowly, she pushes herself up and reaches her hands out like a zombie for the sugar and caffeine offering. Not until she has drank the coffee in exactly the manner Trish described does she have further things to say. 

"Those two are not normal humans. Who the fuck wakes up and thinks, hey, let's roll on the floor and do push ups?"

Danny grins at Trish"The fist eats up a lot of energy when I use it, so it doesn't hurt to top off my tank." He suddenly sticks out his tongue and laughs." JUST KIDDING! It's my one weakness...sweet stuff..remember our first date? Those buns…GOD those buns!. Anyway about your lessons, I'm gonna have to think about how to do that? You say you studied another style. If I remember right the style you studied is far more aggressive and energy consuming then our Soft Fist."

"How can I describe it to you? Oh I got it..Tai-Chi is the closest equivalent to how you would describe it. Use a person's power against them to create opening, then perhaps we can incorporate some of your original style in to do damage. Yes this will work, you will literally float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."

Luke sighs but agrees with Jessica. "They are like the bizzaro versions of us. Plus I think your sister wants to experiment on me to see how my powers work. And what's bad is the chirpy smile and voice she said it in was creepy as hell." 

He's kidding…a little...just a little. 

"Well come on time to hit the shower, you can go by yourself and have a hot one or I carry you and it’s gonna be ice cold, your choice. "

"Soft fist? How do you use a soft if you are the Iron Fists? That doesn't sound like it goes together at all, or do you just have to teach me differently because I'm not the Iron Fist?" Trish questioned, her eyes bright with interest.

She stood, abandoning the yoga in favor of hearing more about what Danny can teach her. " That sounds really amazing. Do you really think I can do that? Can you do it right now?" Then another thought occurred to her and she grinned. "You said I would use people's power against them. Does that mean I could even take down Jessica or Luke?" 

Jessica scoffed out loud, sitting up a little more and rolling her eyes. "Oh I have absolutely no doubt that given the right tools, Trish would totally experiment on you and me both. Probably dissect us if it didn't actually kill us. And if it was possible with you. She keeps riding my ass about finding out more about the place that gave me my powers, she does not get the memo that I don't care how this happen to me or who did it, I'd rather just go on with my life. She always wants to TALK about everything."

She said the word talk like it was a curse word. At Luke's threat, she growled under her breath but got to her feet starting to head towards the bathroom.

Danny claps and smiles at Trish. "Yay you get an A+, Ironfist is a style only I can use but Soft Fist is a bit of a deception." 

He looks around for something to demonstrate on and decides on a wall. "I hope this doesn't mean I have to buy this place." He barely swings his arm and punches a hole in what looks a concrete pillar built in the wall. "If I had used the ironfist I would have knocked down the wall."

Danny thinks about her other question. "Could you beat someone like Luke or Jessica with soft fist, it’s possible. I don't know much about your sister as for Luke, anything is possible but doubt it. At least not for a long long time."

Luke gives Jessica a smack on the ass and grins as she walks away. "Don't take too long, kind of want to explore this place in the daylight. By the way, you look hot with morning bed head."

Trish watches Danny intently, smiling to her self. "Always did get good grades." 

When she sees the hole he created, she takes a step back, holding up both hands. "Whoa....I can do that with SOFT fist? Show me!" 

She got into her best fighter stance, attempting to look fierce. 

Jessica flipped Luke off at his comment but almost smiles. After a long shower, she emerges with damp hair and passably civil, though far from cheery. She makes herself another cup of coffee and blinks at the hole in the wall. "Someone has shitty aim."

Danny moves in front of Trish, sliding between her arms, his eyes locks with hers, he only needs to slightly adjust her stance. Actually not at all, it's just an excuse to touch her. He peeks over her shoulder when Jessica and Luke come out of their room together.

"Welcome back to land of the living. And my aim was perfect, I don't miss." 

Luke glances at Danny and Trish, then the hole." We gonna say that was there when we got here right? I think we interrupted them doing something kinky."

Danny once again gives Luke the finger. 

"What da hell twice in one day and I've barely finished my coffee, must be a record. Anyway who wants to explore the city?" 

Danny smiles at Trish and gives her a kiss on the cheek. "What do you say, ready to go public?"

Trish relaxes against Danny, smiling up at him. She lets him adjust her, keeping her expression and voice very flirtatious. 

"You're a natural instructor. I'm sure you could teach me a lot of things." 

Jessica made a face at them, wrinkling her nose.

"God, no lame not so coded sex references, I'm hungover enough without you giving me visuals and demonstrations to make me gag."

She slid an arm around Luke, giving him a pointed ass squeeze, and smirked at the other two.

"Every time you do something sappy I'll molest one of his boy parts, got it?" 

Trish gave a nearly identical smirk, looking too amused by this. "Is this a challenge? A public one?"

Danny, defiant to Jessica's comments about PDA, starts to kiss Trish's ear lobe.

"You're not my first student but you are my favorite." He leaned his head so when he sticks his tongue out at Jessica and Luke they can see him. "No challenge, just us in the sunlight. And if someone sees us and recognizes us, so what."

Luke looks at Jessica, confused. "What's the big deal if they're seen together in public?? Is that a rich person problem? If so I'm glad we're not rich, we do whatever we want."

"I think she's asking if I'm going to grope you in public," Jessica explained to Luke, raising an eyebrow at Trish and Danny. "And yeah, I don't see why the hell not."

She grabbed a pillow off the couch and threw it at the two; it burst when it hit them, sending stuffing flying everywhere. Trish squeaked and ducked, and Jessica grinned. "Right, I feel better now. Where to first?"

Danny picking stuffing out of hair, picks up another pillow looking towards Jessica. 

“It's so on now!" He flings it with a decent amount of force that it explodes when Luke steps between it and Jessica covering him head to toe with the stuffing, Danny grabs another pillow and throws it this time Luke punches it with enough force that when it explodes it flies back on Danny. 

"You goof look at you. You look like a snowman."

"Yeah well you look like a giant s'more."

Both men start laughing as they turn to their mates, both grab a pillow and swing them at Trish and Jessica, gently nailing them both. Luke grins at Jessica.

" You started this."

"That's right, and I'm finishing it too." 

Jessica grabs a handful of feathers and runs to Luke, shoving them down the front of his shirt. She sneezes, shaking her hair out of her face, during which time Trish takes the opportunity to stuff several feathers into Jessica's hair. Giggling, Trish hits Danny with a pillow too, then Jessica with the same one. Rolling her eyes, Jessica tosses some feathers towards her. 

"Didn't even feel that." To the guys, she smirks, "Just minus the shirts and we would be carrying out your slumber party fantasies."

Luke holds up his hands in surrender to Jessica. "Wait..just wait how did this turn into a free for all?" He turns and points at Danny and Trish. "When it should be us vs them..The Bizzaro Versions of us??" 

Danny looks around the entire room is trashed stuffing everywhere. "Enough guys, we need to find a better outlet, now act like adults."

Danny walks towards Luke holding out his hand, once he's in arms reach, he smashes a jelly filled doughnut in Luke's face. "Looks good on you brother." 

While Danny laughs, Luke grabs a napkin and wipes his face.

"Rand..you better start running." 

Luke looks ridiculous, now covered in pillow stuffing and sticky from the jelly. "See what I deal with, he acts like a monk but he's really a monkey."

Jessica blinks, cocking her head at Luke, and slowly starts to smile wickedly. "Oh....good point." 

She looks around the room, searching for another "weapon." When Danny smears the donut on Luke, Trish gasps, covering her mouth, and looks at Jessica worriedly, torn between wanting to laugh and worried Jessica will explode. Jessica's lips twitch, and she heads for the donut box, picking up another jelly filled and holding it up threateningly towards Trish, eyes gleaming. Trish squeals and jumps behind Danny for protection. 

"Noooo it will be all in my hair! Danny, help me!"

Luke watches and smiles watching everyone, convinced both Jessica and Danny need this, he can tell Jessica is enjoying herself and Danny for him to just stand there and let a doughnut get smashed in his face while his girlfriend hides behind him is proof he's having fun. The man can dodge bullets so evading Jessica would have easy for him.

Not wanting to be left out he grabs a bunch of doughnuts and backs Jessica up. "That's right baby, bring the pain!"

"Oh nooo not my gorgeous hair!" Jessica mocks Trish in a high-pitch imitation of her voice, easily reaching Danny and pull in Trish out from around him.

As Trish cringes and tries to Shield herself with her hands, Jessica breaks the donut in half and deliberately smears its contents into Tricia's hair and over Danny's face. She raises an eyebrow at Trish's sputtering expression, still grinning. 

"Come on Blondie, I've seen you with more fight to you when you ran out of your favorite lip gloss." 

"Oh, you are in for it!" Trish threatened, squealing and laughing at the same time. She hooks her ankle around Jessica's and pulled, trying to trip her, but Jessica easily dodged around. 

“Please, I can survive falling in 20 stories and land on my feet and you think you can trip me?"

Both Luke and Danny cringed when Trish squealed. "See that why I shave my head Trish." 

Luke winks at her, running his hand over his head, showing how smooth it is. Danny burst out laughing and suddenly stops pointing behind the group to the horrified maid standing behind them.

"Ummm nobody answered the door." 

Danny cuts in. "And there was no Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Look this isn't as bad as it looks."

Trish freezes, her mouth dropping in horror when the maid stares at them. Hurriedly she tries to come up with a reasonable explanation. 

"Oh, hello! No need to worry about cleaning, see, we're in the middle of a rehearsal for a movie I'll be shooting soon. Um, we need to work on easier clean up, but we almost have it." 

"Yeah, that's right. We are totally shooting a movie where people stuff feathers and jelly in people's hair, that's Trish Walker's idea of high brow entertainment," Jessica deadpanned. 

Trish shot her an evil look and smiled innocently at the maid. "It was written by Adam Sandler, be sure to watch when it's released!" 

When the maid backed away slowly out of sight, Trish whacked Jessica on the arm and scowling at her. "You could have backed me up!" 

Then she started to giggle, covering her mouth. Jessica's lips twitched and she started to snicker too. When Trish gave her a hug, Jessica even allowed it.

"It's nice to see you looking happy," Trish whispered in her ear. "You deserve it. Believe that." 

Then she wiped off some of the jelly in her hair and deliberately smeared it on Jessica's cheek before leaping back behind Danny again. Jessica just shook her head, looking back at Luke with unusually relaxed features.

"Were we going to do something today other than food fights? Cause if not, I warn you, any booze is off limits in being wasted."  
Luke had moved next to Danny and whispered to him. "An Adam Sandler movie? Guess it doesn't matter if she's making it up cause nobody would have seen it anyway."

Danny gives Luke a fist pump as they stand there and watch. "Should I be concerned about how quick she came up with that?" 

“Nah, brother you're good, it's not like she told you you're the biggest she ever had!" 

Danny looks at him, defeated.

"What, she didn't say that to you? Well at least she's not lying to you…tiny."

Danny sighs out loud. "I guess I'm gonna have to pay for all this aren't I?”

"I need to shower," Trish announces. Going to Danny, she slipped an arm around his waist. "And so does he." 

Jessica looked at Luke, the, disappeared into their bedroom. She returned with her camera and snapped several pictures of the other three, even as Trish tried to block her face.

"For the publicity shots....since you're headlining with Adam."

Danny happily follows Trish like a loyal puppy. "Right behind you."

Luke keeps laughing at everyone. "I bet we'll be showing those to their kids one day." 

He moves in front of Jessica gently pushing her camera to the side, slipping an arm around her. "Damn baby, is all you packed was a camera, toothbrush and some panties?" 

He leans to the side to grin and peek at her ass. "You really are my dream girl." 

Now that Danny and Trish have vanished Luke confides in Jessica.

"Thankyou for being you and for Trish being her. Never seen Danny happier, and I’ve never been happier. So thank you."

As Trish and Danny disappear together into the bathroom, Jessica leans into Luke's embrace, relaxed and content. She doesn't protest his words, and she still carries a trace of a smile on her lips.


	9. Chapter 9

Jessica could not remember the last time that she had felt like this. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she had thought it possible that she could feel like this. Even allowing herself to mentally label her feelings in the past few weeks seemed risky, even dangerous. How could she acknowledge to herself that she had been enjoying her life, even feeling happy about considerable portions of it? To admit even to herself that she was experiencing happiness seemed like a surefire way to bring it all to a devastating end.

But as much as she didn’t want to even think the word, happy was a fairly accurate way to describe her, recently. It was an emotion she could hardly avoid, given how neatly and easily her life seemed to be falling into place. Kilgrave was dead, for real this time, his threat over her and everyone else ended forever. There hadn’t been an attack to NYC or the world recently that required her involvement to save from apocalypse. Trish wasn’t on drugs, had the good sense to be staying away from her mother, and was even in a relationship Jessica approved of, as much as she would approve of anyone with her sister. Trish was healthy, safe, and happy, and that was all Jessica wanted for her.

And for Jessica…well, there was Luke. The more she got to know him, and the more time she spent with him, the more she knew that she was falling more and more deeply in love with him. And by some crazy twist of fate, Luke had decided that he loved her too.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to push him away. She had tried rudeness and bluntness, making it clear to him that there was no “better” Jessica that he might eventually shape her into. What he saw was what he was going to get. She didn’t hide her drinking or her temper, her antisocial tendencies or her cynicism. And still, he didn’t back away. Even after knowing her history, the worst of what she had done and the depth of her emotional scars, he still looked her in the eyes with nothing but respect and acceptance. Jessica still didn’t feel that she deserved this, but she loved the person that Luke was showing himself to be too much to walk away, even if she felt that was what would be the best option for him. Maybe it was selfish of her, but she wanted him, a life with him, too much to try much harder to force him away.

And even the parts she hated most about herself, as she spent time with Luke, seemed to be getting better ever so slowly. Jessica was never going to be a person without a dark side to herself; hell, even before her family died and her life spun out of control for the next twenty years, she had been the kind of asshole teenager who dressed in black, played only metal bands, and had few facial expressions beyond scowls. She still drank heavily, she still avoided the public whenever possible, and she still shrank from any initiating any physical affection and refused to express her affection verbally. She still had nightmares, panic attacks, and hallucinations. But they were becoming less and less frequent and intense, and her sleep was getting better, overall. She even thought she wasn’t drunk quite as often.

Luke was changing her, somehow. And damn it, Jessica didn’t even mind it.  
88

“We’ve got eleven new potential cases,” Malcolm greeted her, the first Monday that Jessica returned from her trip with Luke, Trish, and Danny. “Most of the same, straightforward cheating spouse kind, but there’s a few that are a little more complex. I took down all the messages for you, the ones I thought you’d be most interested in are highlighted.”

Jessica hadn’t actually given the man permission to be taking down calls, speaking with clients, or coming into the office to work when she wasn’t also present. Hell, she was pretty sure he was supposed to be currently fired for the fifth or sixth time. But Malcolm generally ignored whatever orders she gave if he saw fit to, and she was in a decent enough mood to overlook his supposedly unemployed state. For today.

She gifted him with only a slight scoffing noise and rolling of her eyes rather than the full-on ass chewing he might normally have received, accepting the neatly labeled folder he held out to her. Flipping through it and rolling her eyes for a second time at the typed notes he had organized, she skimmed through each, tossing them haphazardly onto her desk as she rejected them entirely or dismissed their importance.  
“Cheater, cheater, blackmail, whack job, religious nut, cheater, cheater-“

Her hand stopped on the next note, several of the typed words jumping out at her. Missing child- Gabriel Dowling, age ten. Jessica swallowed, her throat suddenly and uncomfortably tight. Her brother Phillip had also been ten years old, the year that he died. She had spent the last sixteen years feeling very uncomfortable and vaguely agitated when anywhere near a male child under the age of fourteen; the parallels to her brother were far too obvious and raw.

Forcing herself to shake off her discomfort the best that she could, Jessica began to read over Malcolm’s notations more thoroughly. The call in had been made by the child’s mother, Cynthia Dowling; Jessica noted that no father was listened and reminded herself to follow up on his involvement or lack of, whether he was the potential perpetrator of the disappearance. The child had allegedly been missing for several days, with no signs of being a runaway and no ransom note left. Mother claims to have gone to wake him one morning only to find his room empty and no signs of a kidnapping or intruder.

The minimal facts raised more questions for Jessica than answers; already she was wondering whether the disappearance could be staged, if it was possible that this was all some bullshit custody battle, or if ten years old really was old enough for a kid to be a runaway or going on some extended, unapproved sleepover with one of his friends. But if neither was the case, then a little boy was missing and at risk of great harm, if he wasn’t dead already. Jessica might not think of herself as a hero, but she couldn’t in good conscience turn this down.

“This one,” she said to Malcolm, tapping the file. “Start looking up what you can on Cynthia and Gabriel Dowling. I’m calling her up and asking her to come in.”  
88

There was nothing alarming about Cynthia Dowling, at first impression. She was a woman about ten years older than Jessica herself, of average height, weight, and appearance. But there was a haunted, pained look to her eyes, dark circles stained deeply beneath them, and her shoulders slumped as she took the seat across from Jessica’s desk that she was directed towards. Nevertheless, she met Jessica’s gaze firmly and with a surprising steeliness as she addressed her.

“I know you’ll have questions for me, Ms. Jones, and I’ll answer anything and do anything you need to help me get Gabriel back. But I’m going to tell you now that most of the standard questions a person would ask about a child’s disappearance will not help you, because they’ll be going in the wrong direction.”

Jessica arched an eyebrow, leaning back in her chair and fixing a skeptical look at the woman. “Hey, lady, you came to me for help, so why don’t you let me actually do the work I’m qualified for instead of telling me what you think is or isn’t going to help?”

“I’m not telling you how to do your job,” Cynthia insisted, lifting both hands wearily and letting them drop down to her lap. “But I know the type of questions the police would ask, and they are wasting both of our time, and my son’s time, which he may not have much of. I-“

“So you’ve spoken to the police?” Jessica interrupted. When the woman hesitated, then shook her head, Jessica narrowed her eyes, leaning towards her. “Your kid has been missing for days, and you didn’t report this to the police?”

“I know how it sounds,” Cynthia said wearily, rubbing a hand over her face. “I can understand why you’re judging me for that, and if this wasn’t my son and my life, I’d judge anyone else just the same. But the police couldn’t do anything for us, Ms. Jones. That’s why I’ve come to you.”

She paused, lifting her face up again. “My son did not run away. My son did not wonder off and get lost, and before you even ask, his father is not in the picture. I never even told him that I was pregnant, and I’ve never told Gabriel who his father is. He has nothing to do with this, it would be impossible.”

“Lady, there’s a lot of things in this world that should be impossible, but aren’t,” Jessica muttered, exhaling. “I’m assuming you have reasons for the dad not being involved? What makes you think there’s no way a guy you didn’t even want to know you’re pregnant couldn’t do something with your son?”

“It wasn’t like that,” Cynthia said. “It wasn’t…abuse, or that he was a bad person, or anything like that. It was a silly, casual fling that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy that I wasn’t unopposed to go through with.” She signed, shaking her head. “I didn’t know Gabriel’s father enough to know whether or not he was capable of being a good father, or if he would be interested. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I didn’t want to have to take the risk of finding out. I thought…Gabriel was going to be mine, the only person who was all mine. I thought I could be enough for a child…for my child.”

Her voice shook slightly, and she brushed at her eyes before steadying it. “This has nothing to do with what’s happened to my child. This-“

“There’s no way you can know that at this point,” Jessica interrupted, not bothering to hide the irritation in her tone. “You hire me to investigate and I’m investigating all possibilities. I need-“

“I chose you because of what you are,” Cynthia Rowling blurted, and when Jessica stopped speaking, blinking at her, the woman squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, continuing. “Because…because I’ve heard about who you are. The things you can do. You’re like my son, Ms. Jones…or rather, my son is like you. If anyone is going to be able to bring my son back to me, it will be a person who is like him.”

Jessica knew exactly what the woman was implying. Still, she had to be certain.

“What do you mean, your son is like me?”

“I don’t know the right word for it,” Cynthia said carefully, seeming to be trying to choose words that would be accurate without offense. “I’ve always just thought of Gabriel as….special. Not a mutant, or a superhero, or even superpowered…to me, he was just my son.”

Jessica could feel her heartbeat speed up, and she had to make herself hold still as the woman spoke, make her face remain blank. Even so, her hands twitched, and her throat went dry with her craving to drink as she listened.

“Gabriel can…go places. Without walking, or doing anything to get there. All he has to do is wish for it, or think about it, and he’s there. I think the word is teleporting…whatever it is, he can do it.” Cynthia shook her head, giving a short, broken-sounding laugh. “When he was a baby, I never could make him stay in his crib at night. I couldn’t keep him in the corner for time out or in the house on rainy days. I homeschool him, because when he was in preschool and would get bored, he would take himself out to the playground and send the teachers into a panic, not knowing where he went or how he got there.”

As the implications of what Cynthia was saying began to dawn on Jessica, she looked at the woman sharply, her back straightening.

“If your son can teleport- hold on, what are you telling me? You think your child’s been kidnapped, right? That someone is holding him? But how is that possible, if all he has to do is wish himself back home, and it would happen?”

Cynthia nodded, a small, tight smile without joy curving her lips.

“You understand now, Ms. Jones. You being like my son- that isn’t the only reason I chose you. You understand what it would take, what kind of person it would take, to be able to hold my son when he doesn’t want to be there. The kind of person who would and could do this. You…you had experience with that, didn’t you? The man this year on the docks-“

“I’m not talking about that,” Jessica snapped, reeling back from her fast enough that the back of her chair smacked against the wall behind her. “That’s none of your damn business.”

“I understand,” her client said quietly, nodding. “But please understand, this is why I’ve chosen you to help me find my son. You know what people like that can do to someone like him- to someone like you. I want my son back with me, Ms. Jones. And if…if something happened to him…if someone’s done something to him…then I want you to be able to tell me who it is that’s responsible.”

Jessica took some time to gather words. Even as her temples pulsed and her eyes burned, she could only come up with one reply.

“Okay.”  
88

Within hours, she had all the information she and Malcolm could gather on the small Dowling family. It was straightforward enough, and no different from what Cynthia had said. Single parent, no father listed or involved, homeschooled child who had several strange “incidents” in preschool. No red flags popping out about either, beyond the preschool “incidents,” which Cynthia had already explained. Pictures on Cynthia’s social media implied a child who appeared happy and close to his mother and who regularly socialized with other children.

It was only after Jessica had begun to look into some of the children pictured with Gabriel, just at the far-fetched possibility of a lead, that a pattern began to emerge. Each of those children was also homeschooled, never enrolled in public or private elementary schools. And as Jessica began to look into them and their families, other “incidents” began to pop up, suspiciously similar in nature to Gabriel’s preschool incidents.

As her suspicions grew, Jessica began contacting the families of the children that had been Gabriel’s friends, under the premise of needing information about Gabriel’s disappearance. It didn’t take very long for the pattern’s strength to intensify.

Most of the children that Gabriel Dowling was friends with were also “special,” as Ms Dowling had described her son. And three of those children had also, within the past year, mysteriously vanished- children who normally should have been able to fight off or escape a would be threatening person without trouble.

It was becoming obvious to Jessica that whoever it was that had taken the children was gifted with some sort of supernatural ability themselves. Whatever his or her intentions, this person was clearly potentially very dangerous indeed.


	10. Chapter 10

Jessica, texting Luke: new case came up, may be busy a while. Kidnapper, probably superpowered

Luke: Who is this? I have a girlfriend and she doesn't like anyone messing with her man!  
Luke: But seriously be careful, I'm here if you need me. I love you. And yes you have to say it, back those are the rules!

Jessica: it back   
Jessica: you said I have to say "it back" so....check  
Luke: Haha but your defiance only makes you more adorable.  
Luke: I have to meet with a few vendors and listen to an audition for a new singer, oh and some Victoria's Secret Models want to prance around for me but I'll blow all that off if you need me.

Irritated now, Jessica called him. “Ok first off, call me adorable again and unbreakable skin or not, I'm breaking bones. Second off, what the hell are Victoria secret models doing with you? Jesus, get some taste.”

Luke takes a picture and sends it to Jessica's phone. The photo is of three little girls playing model, wearing dresses over their street clothes in his office. 

"I'm just keeping an eye on one of my waitress's kids while she runs errands. And wow, that escalated quickly. Were you actually jealous? As if I'd ever disrespect you like that, Jessica. I will never be that kind of man. And you are adorable, so bring it. I'll be waiting for you. Actually scratch that."

He looked around his office and the pathetic back room he sleeps in. 

"I really need to find a place to live. A real place, not a couch or a backroom."

Relaxing as she sees the picture, Jessica huffed. "No, not jealous, just appalled by the possible lack of taste." She had been, though. "So why haven't you got a place then?"

She is researching the missing children on her computer as she speaks to him, phone jammed between shoulder and ear.

"Never cared about someone enough that I wanted to come home to. Not that I'm asking you to be someone I would come home to. Not yet, I know you like your space and aren't ready for that, but it would be nice to have a place not above a noisy nightclub to spend time, with my thoughts not being drowned out. Someplace you could come and stay with me. Ok, I'm now a rambling idiot! I'm saying words, but not sure you get what I'm saying."

Jessica frowned, having got lost in his musing. Shaking back her hair from her face, she asked, "Nope, you drowned me in words. Are you saying you want us to get a place together or something?"

"Soon I would like that, “Luke admitted. “But first I need to find a place and I'm not sure what I like yet. Anyway, what's up with your case? Doesn't sound like your usual kind of case. So why this one?"

Jessica is quiet for a while before answering, then avoids a straight answer. 

"What, you wouldn't take it? It's missing kids. Someone has to find them, and if it's someone with powers doing it, what would cops do to find them?"

"I didn't mean it like that, the first night we met you were following a cheating wife. I just didn't know you took missing person cases. But if anyone can help this kid, it's you. Hey just be careful, if someone is taking kids they have to be some kind of sick bastard. I know you can handle yourself but I'm just a call away if you need me."

"I take whatever people come to me with that I decide to. Mostly people following their dicks, but anything else is fair game too." Jessica pauses. "It just...this kid can teleport. So how the hell is he still gone?"

"I hate to say it, but maybe he teleported into something solid,” Luke grimaced. “ In all the science fiction I read, the number one rule of teleportation is know where you're going because you could teleport into a mountain or in front of a truck or into space. Sorry, just want you to consider those options. See this is why I can't do your job, I'm already jumping to the worst conclusion. This kid is lucky you're looking for him, because you'll not stop until you find him!"

"Are you serious? Like, the kid is walled alive?! Couldn't he just teleport out again?!" 

Jessica hadn't even thought of that as a possibility. "It isn't just him though. There's a kid missing who can go invisible, yeah, I know, ironic right? And another with super strength, one who has telekinesis. There's something I haven't clicked in on yet."

Luke immediately regrets putting that gruesome thought in her head and declines to say his other thought that someone is experimenting on them in a lab.

"Multiple powered kids? Someone or thing is either convincing them not to run, either by tricking or threatening them. Like saying they can hurt their parents if they run. It would be pretty easy to convince a small child of that. You know what, I changed my mind. As soon as you find the kids or who took them, call me. I want to separate their heads from their bodies! This P.I thing is your gig, but just this once I want to help!"

"I'm thinking it's someone with powers too. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me," Jessica muttered. "I'm looking into the known powered people, public and otherwise, seeing if any fit a profile. I'm guessing this person likes control and power and doesn't tolerate much of it in other people. I mean, who targets kids unless they want total upper hand? Maybe this is someone new into his own abilities, not confident over them yet, so he's starting with kids before going for people his own size. I just wonder what the hell this person can do, and what the point is." 

She paused, exhaling. "I don't want a powered person registry, that's too much like Nazi shit, but it would be nice of we had that just for today. Help me narrow it down."

"You're gonna have to use good old fashion leg work cause the idea of the government up our asses and monitoring our every move is not an option,” Luke tells her. 

Right then the mother of the girls walks up to Luke and silently gestures to them to come, smiling and waving goodbye to Luke, who returns the gesture.

"You, know what baby...I'm headed your direction. If you're on the move call me, and I'll meet you."

"Ok. Meet me outside the pub on 4th street, see you there in about twenty." 

Jessica hung up, running a hand through her hair, and cracked her knuckles. Standing, she stretched, the, slung her camera over her neck, pulled up her hood, and headed out the door, mentally noting a few more people to interview.

Now that Luke has his own truck he doesn't have to wait for an Uber or Lyft to show up. He easily makes it to Jessica in 20 minutes. After parking he gets out and slides on his jacket. He crosses the street to meet Jessica, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. 

"Hey, you lead and I'll follow your play."

Jessica gave his arm a quick, somewhat affectionate squeeze and nodded. 

"Well, your huge ass doesn't really blend into the shadows, but we can make do. There's a few powered people I want to follow today, ones I've marked as potentially having the personality or history to be involved or know of the people that are involved. One works here," she nodded towards the pub, "and I work better with a drink in hand anyway. Their shift will be over in an hour, I'm following them after."

"Hey, you want me to park myself at a bar and just watch your back? That I can do, and honestly I could use a drink myself. Watching little girls all day took a lot out of me,” Luke admitted. “So how about we go in separately, that way we won't stand out. I mean as a couple, we really stand out! I'll stay in ear shot of you."

For the first time he's a little worried about her. It's one thing going against some dumbass thug, but the idea that someone can overpower other supers is unsettling. Sure they were kids, but Luke doesn't know how the kidnapper overpowered them. The not knowing is what worries him. 

"I know I keep saying it but Jessica, be careful."

Jessica smirked, enjoying the thought of big manly Luke chasing after three little girls awkwardly. 

"So a bunch of little girls have you wrapped around their finger, huh? Damn, you sure would be in for it If you knocked someone up." She nods in acknowledgment of his suggestion. 

"Sounds smart, good point. Two of us together do sort of draw eyes." 

When he warned her again, Jessica looked up at him seriously, losing the sarcasm. "Luke, careful is not really my lifestyle, if you haven't noticed. It doesn't seem to be yours either. I can't promise careful. Best I can say is I won't do something deliberately near suicidal, unless there's a damn good reason I think I should."

Knowing pushing this any further is useless, Luke sighs and walks towards the door , but still gives her a smack on the ass and grins as he moves away. 

“I'll be watching you, so do what you got to do."

Even without Jessica, Luke can tell he's still gonna stand out a little. Jessica calling this place a pub is an understatement, this place looks like a piece of Ireland was dropped in the middle of NYC. Hopefully the patrons are too invested in their ale to pay much attention to the 6 ft plus black giant of a man who makes his way to the corner of the bar, where he can see the entire room. Luke ordered himself an ale and sits to wait for Jessica to come in.

Jessica knew that Luke wasn’t overly satisfied with her response to him, but it was the best and most honest one she could give him. She could hardly promise him to be careful when she had no idea yet the full scope and potential danger of the case that she was working on or the person behind the kids’ disappearances. Even if she did have more knowledge, she still could have promised him no such thing. It wasn’t within her nature to be cautious, even if she was very much anxious or afraid. Reckless, impulsive, and sometimes stupidly determined to do what she wanted or needed to do was a far better description of how Jessica lead her life

She lingered on the sidewalk outside the pub, allowing Luke to go in ahead of her as he had suggested, to deter anyone who might notice them from thinking of them as arriving together. Leaning mock casually against the wall of the pub’s exterior, she removed her phone from her jacket pocket and pretended to be texting someone, then spent several more minutes scrawling through nothing much in particular to kill a little more time. She was getting ready to put the phone up and enter the pub when something caught her focus. Stilling, she continued to pretend to pay attention to her phone, even as she looked around herself out her peripheral vision.

She didn’t see someone nearby, at least not anyone she could pinpoint as appearing threatening or to be paying attention to her. But the hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and she was nevertheless feeling sharp unease. She felt, without knowing yet why, that she was being watched.

Pivoting suddenly on her heels, she turned towards the alley two doors down from herself, checking for any signs of a possible camera or other equipment that may be monitoring her. There was nothing she could see, but that meant nothing, and the feeling of being watched only pressed more strongly. 

Acting on instinct, she hissed out the corner of her mouth in the alley’s direction, “I see you. You’ve got five seconds to come out in the open and tell me what the hell you’re doing or I’m going to fuck you over, got it?”

She waited, body tensed, hands forming fists in preparation for a physical confrontation. She had counted to four and was beginning to wonder if this was a miscalculation, her PTSD rearing its head again, before a man somewhere in his thirties came forward, his body slumped sheepishly, eyes fixed on Jessica’s with clear trepidation. Jessica stared at him, looking him over with sharp intensity for any signs of threat. He was too clean and neatly dressed to be just another homeless person or junkie, but she was sure she had never seen him before. 

“I’m not going to hurt you,” the man said quickly, holding his hands up as though to show Jessica he had no weapon or violent intent. “I promise, this isn’t like that.”

“Damn right you’re not,” Jessica barked, eyes narrowing. She made no move to come closer to him; harmless looking didn’t equal harmless in reality. “What the fuck are you doing, skulking around in alleys staring at me? What do you want?” 

The man blinked, appearing somewhat intimidated by her hostile presentation. His voice came out more like a question than a statement as he responded. “You’re Jessica Jones, right?”

Now Jessica’s heart stuttered, and her muscles pulled still more tightly with tension. Her eyes flitted briefly towards the doorway of the pub, wondering if Luke was beginning to notice her lengthy delay in following him, before refocusing on the man. 

“Who the hell is asking?”

“Patrick,” the man said quickly, taking a step back from the bite of her tone, as though her words alone could somehow attack. “I’m Patrick, Patrick Innis. I swear, Ms. Jones, I’m not here as a threat! I just want to help you- I want to help everyone!” 

Jessica continued to eye him skeptically, eyebrows raised. “We never met, Patrick Innis, so just how do you know who I am, and what makes you think I need help? Or that I’d take it from someone who stalks women on the street?”

“It isn’t like that,” Patrick insisted, taking a step closer, then seeming to think better of it when Jessica took on an even more overtly defensive stance. “I’m not- I’m not trying to stalk you. I’m not here for you- it’s for the kids. For Gabriel.”

Alarm bells clanged in Jessica’s brain as he spoke the name of the missing child she was assigned to investigate. She strode forward, seizing the man roughly by the shoulders and slamming his back against the alley wall, out of side of pedestrians and those driving on the street. As Patrick’s eyes widened and he uttered a frightened cry, she stuck her face close to his, digging her fingers into the bone of his shoulders.

“What the hell did you do to that little boy? Where is he?” 

“I didn’t do anything to him!” the man yelped, turning his face partly away from her and flinching. “I told you, I’m here to help you, to help him! It wasn’t me who took him, I’m trying to help you!”

He was beginning to pant, eyes shiny with his fear. “Please, Ms. Jones, there might not be much time before he starts to figure out that I’ve gone to you. Please, just listen to me, before it’s too late…before he makes it too late for you to help.” 

He looked and sounded sincere, both in his anxiety and in his intent. Jessica hesitated, eyes boring into his, before reluctantly loosening her grip on him just a tad.

"Then start talking. What the hell is going on?"

Luke had been babysitting his beer for way too long. Jessica should have been a minute or two after him at worst. It’s been almost ten, he knows this because he kept staring at his watch. Did he not hear her plan right? 

"Screw this, she's just gonna have to be pissed at me if I'm overreacting!"

He jumps up and heads for the door. Reaching the street, he looks around, not seeing her immediately. Luke starts walking, not knowing which way to go. It's by pure chance he picked the right direction and catches Jessica in the alley. A quick feeling of relief rushes over him, at least until he sees that she has a man pinned against the wall. 

“HEY! What the hell happened to the plan? And who the hell is the hobbit?"

Jessica barely flicked her eyes towards Luke, maintaining her focus on Patrick.

"Someone who stalks around in alleys knowing way more about me than he ought to. And he's just about to start singing, aren't you?"

Patrick gulped, giving a quick if not too eager nod as he took in the considerably larger man. "I was just telling her, I'm here to help-"

"So do it then, get to the point," Jessica interrupted. "What do you know about Gabriel?"

Patrick took a breath, eyes still on Luke, before he answered. "I...I spoke to him yesterday. Not the others, just him. He's the only one whose name I got, and his mother's name. That's how I found her, and that she reached out to you-"

"This is fucking sick," Jessica muttered, shaking her head, jaw taut. She could only think of a boy her brother's age, held helpless against this pathetic man, and it took all her will not to punch him out. "I don't give a damn who has him or why, you just take me to them. Now." 

"It isn't that simple," Patrick protested. "I'm not like you, Ms. Jones. I'm just a normal guy, probably worse. I dont have your powers, but even if I did, it wouldnt matter. My brother-"

"It's your brother?" Jessica cut him off. "Your brother has the kids?" 

The man blinked, appearing startled and then guilty. It was obvious to Jessica he hadn't actually meant to say that much. She squeezed his arm until he gasped in pain, just enough to show him a taste of what she could do.

"You think you're scared of your brother? You haven't spied on me enough to get a good idea of who I really am, then. Start talking, and dont leave anything out. Who is he, where is he, and what can he do?"

Luke is not used to not being the intimidating one in the room, but even he got a bit of a chill watching Jessica. Was he really even needed here? She's so in her element here, he could actually be slowing her down, kids’ lives are at stake.

"My man, she's not playing around with you, give her everything she wants, otherwise the only thing that's gonna beat you to the ER will be the headlights on the ambulance carrying your broken body!"

"I'm talking, I'm on your side!" Patrick sputtered. "Please, just...this isn't easy. It's my brother."

His Adam's apple bobbed before he exhaled, beginning to explain. "His name is Anthony Innis. He wasn't always like this. Once he was just a normal person, other than the powers he had. He didn't hurt anyone, he was just living his life."

"And now he takes kids," Jessica pointed out. "He's no innocent or victim." 

"He was once," Patrick muttered, looking down. "He had a wife, Stella. She wasn't like him...or you," he added, nodding towards Jessica. "She was normal, but Anthony loved her, worshipped her. Thought the sun and moon rose on her. So when she was murdered....it changed him." 

He swallowed again. "The man who did it had powers too. Mind reading. He used it to lure Stella and...well, she died, because of him. Anthony wanted to track him, avenge her. I understood it...I supported it."

"Who was it?" Jessica demanded. "Does your brother have him with the kids too?" 

Her mind was whirring with the implications of this; holding a murderer with children was definitely bad news. But Patrick shook his head. 

"No, he's dead. Anthony got him almost six months ago. But...he didn't stop there. He wasn't satisfied. He didn't think it was enough to stop with Stella's killer. He...he started talking about all the potential of everyone with super abilities, how it was nothing for the world but danger, trouble and pain. How they should be outlawed....stripped away, to keep things like what was done to Stella from ever happening again." 

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. "But you said your brother has powers himself," she reminded. " so what, he's a damn hypocrite? All the power just to him? What the Hell is it he can do anyway?"

The man pressed his lips together, looking to the side briefly before answering. "That's the thing...most of the time, Anthony is normal. It's only around other people with abilities that his kicks in. He...he takes their powers on. The person with strength or flight or whatever, around Anthony, it goes off of him and onto him, for as long as he is near them." 

It hit Jessica then as the implication sank in. This was how the man was getting the kids...and how he was keeping them, too. Around him, they truly were powerless.

Luke's eyes widened. "Wait, he can take powers just by being near someone?" 

His mind took in with horror what could happen if he took Luke's invulnerability. He could be more dangerous than Luke ever thought before. Someone like that has to be stopped. 

"Don't care about his super villain orgin story!" Luke punches his fist straight through a large dumpster. "Where is he?"

His eyes darting towards Luke, alarmed at his anger, Patrick practically squeaks his answer. "With the little boy! He wants to find a way to strip him of his power permanently, but so far it hasn't worked with the other kids. They-"

"How many does he have?" Jessica interrupted. "How many missing kids are we talking about?"

Patrick hesitated, his face tightening, and seemed to be bracing himself for the rage the two might give in response. "Right now...just one. The others...he says the others are...gone. He didnt mean to, but they...they're gone now." 

Jessica didn't need him to elaborate. She got it; the kids were dead. Murdered. Sickened, she let her hands on Patrick slacker slightly as her stomach churned. It was clear now just how urgent this case was; if they didn't get to Gabriel, and fast, he would undoubtedly join the other victims, with another child taking his place. 

"Take us to him," she ordered. "I don't care what you have to do, just get us there. Now."

She was speaking on impulse, driven by feeling and urgency. Logically, she knew she needed more information, because if the man could strip and take on the powers of her and Luke, it would require more than a spur of moment non-plan to defeat him and safely retrieve the kid. But logic wasn't in the driver's seat of her brain then. 

"He will kill me," Patrick said desperately. "Can't I just give you directions....or, or..."

"No need for that, brother," a steely voice spoke from close behind Jessica. "I saved you the trouble and met you halfway." 

Releasing Patrick abruptly, Jessica spun around, body tensed for a fight. The man who had entered the alley behind them was barely taller or larger in frame than she was, but he held himself with a confidence that implied a much more massive form. As Patrick gaped, face draining of color, and began to stammer, the man she assumed to be Anthony Innis drew closer, ignoring Jessica and Luke as he zeroed in on Patrick. 

"I'm sorry to find you to be a traitor, brother. I thought you had an understanding of the reasons, the need in this world for my work. I'm very sorry to find out I was mistaken. You made your choice, and you knew very well how I would feel about it."


	11. Chapter 11

Previously

"He will kill me," Patrick said desperately. "Can't I just give you directions....or, or..."

"No need for that, brother," a steely voice spoke from close behind Jessica. "I saved you the trouble and met you halfway."

Releasing Patrick abruptly, Jessica spun around, body tensed for a fight. The man who had entered the alley behind them was barely taller or larger in frame than she was, but he held himself with a confidence that implied a much more massive form. As Patrick gaped, face draining of color, and began to stammer, the man she assumed to be Anthony Innis drew closer, ignoring Jessica and Luke as he zeroed in on Patrick.

"I'm sorry to find you to be a traitor, brother. I thought you had an understanding of the reasons, the need in this world for my work. I'm very sorry to find out I was mistaken. You made your choice, and you knew very well how I would feel about it."

**

"Anthony," Patrick began as the man advanced towards him, already flinching.

Jessica shoved herself between him, but with one hand pushed harshly against her chest, he shoved her aside, hard enough that she fell to the alley ground. She gasped, the air knocked out of her, chest burning even as she struggled to get back to her feet. He advanced towards Patrick slowly and with purpose even as the man continued to plea.

Luke speeds to Jessica's aid to help her up, the weakness was subtle at first but the closer the man got the more Luke felt his power leaving him. Still after Jessica is back on her feet, Luke grabs the man by the shoulder, spinning him around , then quickly grabs him by the neck, lifting him straight off the ground.

"You killed little kids! I'm gonna break you in half!"

Actual contact with the man is all it took, Luke could feel the fatigue his muscles strain. Bewildered, Luke’s arm starts to lower the man back to the ground. "What the hell??"

Jessica too is feeling the effects of Anthony's presence. She feels noticeably weaker, having taken his shove with far more pain than was normal. She felt small, somehow. Fuck, was this how her sister felt every day? No wonder she envied her!

She noted Luke's strain with horror, seeing that he too was being affected. Anthony shook him off without effort, knocking him with his arm as though he were an irritation, easily dismissed. He advanced on Patrick, seizing him by the chin, and squeezed until Jessica heard the man's jawbone crack.

Patrick choked and screamed simultaneously, blood flowing down his chin. He seemed to be nearly drowning in it. Horrified, Jessica ran forward, punching Anthony in the center of his lower back with all her strength. But the man didn't even flinch, and it was Jessica who cried out as she jarred her wrist and knuckle, pain spiking up her arm. Trying to shake it off, she grabbed his shirt with both hands and tugged, trying to force him back from Patrick.

Anthony released the other man, who crumbled in a heap to the alley ground, and rounded on her. Jessica barely saw the fist coming towards her, and when she tried to dodge, her reaction time was slower than usual. She felt her nose break with the impact, her cheek scraped immediately from his knuckle, and as she fell again, blood spurting from her nose, Anthony turned to Patrick.

"I wouldn't have wanted this. But you made your choice."

He took the man's throat in his hand, and Jessica watched, eyes bulging, as he crushed in his trachea.

Luke, getting back to his feet,was even more pissed after he looked at Jessica. Completely forgetting this monster has his invulnerability, he swings at the back of his head full force. Any other time this would kill a person but the impact shatters his fist and his wrist now. He falls back to his knees, gripping his broken hand. It’s been years since he's felt actual pain, and he doesn't like it!

Her nose still bleeding, most of her body throbbing, Jessica painfully and with effort pushed herself back to her feet. She is still in shock not just from what Anthony had done to her, but what she just saw him do to Luke. It is dawning on her they are actually in danger. She stills, stunned, when Patrick's body stops moving, his eyes glazing over. When Anthony casually releases him, he turns to her and Luke almost with regret in his eyes.

"I suggest you back away. Perhaps we will meet again. It may be necessary, but for your own sake, I would hope not."

Luke, on his knees with his broken hand, looks up with a combination of fear and anger in his eyes.

"YOU'RE A COWARD! We'll never stop, not until that little boy is home safe and you pay for all those kids you murdered!" Making his way over to Jessica, he begins getting them both back to their feet. "You better kill us now or we will hunt you to hell and back! And we will kill you! No cops! No courts! One of us is gonna snap your damn neck! So you better hope we don't catch you!"

"You heard him," Jessica spat. She shrugged off Luke's hands, not wanting to appear weak or in need of help even as her body shook with suppressed pain and her voice came out slightly distorted through her broken nose. "We will never stop. You just insured your death warrant and made enemies you better fear. We will make you pay."

Anthony inclined his head in almosr gentlemanly acknowledgment, even daring to smile. Jessica lunged towards him, not giving a flying fuck how much she hurt herself again, just wanting to beat the shit out of him however possible. It didn't take more than another easy push to send her back against the alley wall, a few ribs cracking with the force of the impact. She slumped to the ground, trying to suck in breaths. She had broken ribs before, but she was astonished by how much more broken ribs hurt without supernatural strength and faster healing. She couldn't seem to think.

"Right, then I'm sure we will meet again. If you're lucky, I will be prepared for you, and you can resume your lives eventually, free of the risk you currently pose the world. But the more you pursue me, I'm afraid, the less time I will have to work on making this possible, and the more likely it is you won't resume any sort of life at all."

Without anything further, he jumped straight up, landing atop the closest building using Jessica's skill to do so. She could hear him jump down somewhere on its other side dimly in the distance. He was gone, leaving nothing behind him but the broken body of his brother and the two heroes who had failed in being heroic.

In the distance Luke can hear police sirens coming, most likely because he threw the dumpster into the street. He looks over at the dead body, then at Jessica in the condition she's in.

"We can't stay here, we can't be here in our conditions with a dead body!"

Lifting her up in his arms, he grunts when the pain shoots through his wrist and hand. Luke takes off running through the alley away from the incoming sirens and continues to run till the sound fades away. He didn’t know if Jessica could make it with her injuries all the way to a hospital. Hell, can a hospital even do anything for her anyway?

"You still with me? What should we do now?"

Luke can actually feel his strength slowly returning, but it's doing nothing for his injuries. The pain is dulling but still hurts like hell.

"We should get you to a hospital!"

Jessica wants to protest Luke lifting her, but with broken ribs and slowed healing she is going to be slower than usual. She too hears the sirens and knows what that means; she doesn't have time to be hauled into a police station or jail cell about now. Gritting her teeth, riding out the pain still steadily pulsing through what seems like every part of her, she shakes her head at Luke, stubborn, irritated even by the suggestion of a hospital.

"No! I'm not going to a fucking hospital, I will jump straight out the window if you put me in one!"

Even to her own ears her words are still difficult to understand. She puts one hand over nose, trying to slow the bleeding, but does little but make more of a mess.

"Fuck....fuck...." She looks at Luke, trying to assess his condition. "Your hurting your hand more. Put me down, I'll be fine. I'm fine."

Trying to think, unsure of whether or not healing will start kicking in soon, she shakes her head, grimacing when this sends fresh pain through her nose.

"Fuck...okay, okay. Take my phone, call Trish. She's patched me up before, she can at least wrap my ribs. Put something on my nose and your hand. Then we can regroup and figure out how to get the fucker."

Luke stopped and let her down." You sure you can stand on your own? Your head has to be in a complete fog."

Going into his own pocket, he pulls out his phone.

"Don't worry, I have her number in my phone." He calls her number and holds the phone to Jessica's ear. "Tell her to have Danny double back and grab my truck, I don't want the cops to see it and trace me to that crime scene."

He turned his attention to his broken hand and grimaced in pain as he began to reset the bones in his hand and wrist. Each bone makes a crunching sound as he snaps it back. His healing didn't help with the pain one bit.

"Fuck! I'm gonna kill him! I'm going to fucking kill him!"

Jessica does waver a little when Luke sets her down but makes herself hold steady. The only time she can accept letting herself be carried is if it's to a bed for sex or if she's unconscious; she damn well is going to walk if she can make her legs go. She is secretly glad when Luke dials and holds the phone for her though. She doesnt want him to see her fumbling with shaky hands to make a simple damn call. As Trish answers, sounding surprised since Jessica so very rarely actually calls her, Jessica gets to the point without elaboration.

"Trish, Luke and I need you and Danny to come pick us up. We got our asses handed to us, we need some things taped up."

"Jessica, what happened, you're hurt?" Trish demanded, sounding alarmed. Jessica was definitely not in the habit of asking her for help, especially not over the phone, and she immediately took this seriously. "Where are you?"

"Alley by the pub at fifth street," Jessica answered, avoiding elaborating about her question, of being hurt. "Come get us, and hurry. Well, we're actually a block or two over, closer to Courtney Blvd. And Luke wants Danny to come too and get his truck to drive it home for him."

"I'll tell him," Trish promised, sounding no less worried. "We're on our way. Jess, please be careful. I love you."

Jessica didn't reply, hanging up. "They re coming."

Danny was in earshot of Trish when the call came. "Don't worry, we'll get the truck first and pick them up."

Danny orders a car to pick them up, using the app on his phone his able to track them remotely open and start the truck. "Ok which way?"

Luke’s hand and wrist still agonized him even after he reset the bones. It's only a minute or two after Danny and Trish reach the truck, which was on the edge of the police crime scene, that they have to back away and circle the block to reach Luke and Jessica.

"Get in the truck!"

Luke helped Jessica despite knowing she'll hate the help. Danny speeds away, looking at Luke and Jessica in the rear view mirror.

"What the hell happened? Who could do that kind of damage to you?"

Jessica slumps back against the truck's seat, head against the window, still trembling. As Luke had predicted, she is light headed, barely conscious, and the reality of what had just happened and what it could mean for them is beginning to sink in. She doesn't answer, eyes beginning to glaze. Her hand and arm, nose, ribs, cheekbone, and every part of her body that had been jarred by hitting the wall and ground seemed to pulse steadily with pain. She keeps picturing the horror in Patrick Innis's eyes as his brother so easily crushes in his throat, and a panic attack is beginning to set in.

Trish, shocked and horrified as she is by Luke and Jessica's obvious injuries, is more immediately concerned by Jessica's distant, empty expression. It's one she recognizes, and she leans toward her, putting her fingertips very lightly on Jessica's undamaged cheek.

"Jess, look at me. See where you are. I'm here, Luke's here, Danny. Say your streets."

As Trish lightly tapped her cheek, drawing her focus, Jessica drew in a breath, her eyes starting to clear. She muttered a string of names under her breath, and once she had finished Trish took her hand back, still rigid with worry.

"Who did this? Luke, do you know?"

Luke leaned forward in his seat, almost doubled over in pain. "I got not a damn clue! The guy took my damn powers and beat us like a couple of step children!"

Danny pulls into the parking garage of building with the tunnel in it, he jumps out at first to help Luke but Luke stops him, indicating he can walk on his own.

“Don’t worry about me, help Jessica.”

Danny moves to the other side to help Trish with Jessica. "Hey, I know you don't want it but let me help you walk, Jessica. You won't make it if I don't help you."

Luke slams the truck door shut and shouts over it. "Let them help Jessica, we don't have time to be stubborn!"

Jessica still looks grim faced, her mouth a thin line and her eyes very dark, but she lets Danny and Trish move close to help. When Trish slides an arm around her waist to try to support her, she hisses, and Trish stills, apologetic.

"Ribs," Jessica grunted. "Ignore it, I'll be fine."

"I'm not ignoring it," Trish said firmly. "Danny, watch her ribs. Pick her up if you have to."

She moved her arm higher so it was wrapped more around Jessica's upper back and chest than her waist to support her with less strain to her ribs. She nods in response to Luke as they began to make their way into the building. Trish notes that escalators will be easier, but stairs would mean less people will see them.

"But who was it? Why did he do this? And how?" Trish asked.

"Can we get in the fucking building before you interview?" Jessica snapped. "Please!"

"We'll take my private elevator, don't need the guards asking questions."

Danny walks with Jessica and Trish to the door, types in his code, and proceeds through the hall to the elevator and up to the Penthouse. Coming out into the spare bedroom, he gently lays Jessica on the bed. He looks back at Luke, who slumped down into a chair.

"Luke can wait, let's deal with the more serious wounds of your sister,” he said to Trish. “ On the surface a broken nose, broken ribs."

"Need to check her for internal bleeding!" Luke shouts from across the room.

Danny has been on more battlefields than he wants to think about. The only good thing about that is he knows how to triage a person.

"Trish, in our room there is a chest with a first aid bag, grab it."

The other benefit of being the Ironfist, Danny can to a limit use his own Chi to heal, but doing so he'll lose his ability to use the ironfist for a day or two, and he may not heal someone entirely.

"Jessica, I can stop the internal bleeding, but I can't do anything about your ribs or your nose. When I do this it’s gonna hurt at first, me passing my chi into you is gonna feel like lava. It will only be a few seconds but it's still gonna be painful. Do you want me to proceed?"

Jessica is starting to feel dizzy again, enough that she doesn't say anything or protest when they lay her on Danny's bed. Trish casts another worried look towards her and Luke before hurrying to get the first aid kit Danny indicated. She returns quickly and hands it to him, then stands close, her brow furrowed.

"Be careful, Danny. You know how, you're sure? Will it hurt you? Or her if you mess up?"

Jessica nodded tightly in response to Danny. "Yes....do it."

"I'll just need to sleep for a few days, usually in battle there are healers near by so I wouldn't have to do this. Taking myself out the fight isn't a good thing. But we don't have a healer and there is no battle. When I pass out, don't panic, I'll be fine. Just finish with Jessica, then help Luke."

Danny’s right fist starts glowing. He takes a long deep breath, holding his open hand over Jessica's ribs. Pouring in his chi, i's just like he described it, hot lava pouring into her, the energy seeking out the internal wounds and forcing them to heal. Using his chi like this is far more draining than using it to destroy. It is after all easier to destroy than it is to create.

After 20 seconds Danny collapses to the floor. Luke gets up and picks Danny off the floor, looking to Trish.

"I'll put him into your bed, please take care of Jessica."

Trish regards him with increased worry for a few second as Jessica consents, but accepts the other's decision, trusting he can handle it. She sits on the bed on the other side of Jessica, watchful of both.

As Danny focused on healing her, Jessica's body stiffened, and she screwed her eyes shut, choking back a scream at the burning sensation flooding through her. Her body's instinct was to thrash, her mind's instrinct to scream aloud from the pain of it, but Jessica held her breath and bit the inside of her cheeks, making herself endure. Gradually the heat he is pushing inside of her subsides, and she realizes she can move and breathe more easily. The pain in her ribcage and nose is still present, but Jessica no longer feels like she is struggling to remain conscious and aware. She tries to sit up, intending to get out of bed, but Trish pushes her back gently.

"You idiot, he didn't make himself sick healing you just so you could immediately undo it. Stay put."

Biting her lip, Trish watched Luke carry Danny's supine form, face lined with concern, anxiety, and empathy. She wants to go to him, to attend to him, but he had assured her he was fine, so she tried to trust.

She set to work on Jessica, first pushing up her shirt to assess the state of her ribs, and noticed the dark bruising forming. She taped them up carefully, then inspected her nose. She handed her an ice pack to hold on it, then worked to splint it, instructing her to sit up with her back against the bed's headboard to keep it elevated. Then she turned to Luke.

"What can I do, where are you hurt most?"

Luke smiles at Trish. "Thanks, I managed to do a piss poor job of resetting the bones in my wrist and hand, if you can wrap it for me, it should heal completely in a day or two.”

He looks over at the job she did on Jessica. "She wasn't kidding, you do know your stuff when it comes to bandaging up dumbass folks like us. We got sloppy and over confident, thought we were the big bad wolves! Should know by now there is always a bigger badder wolf! We won't be sloppy again!”

Luke shook his head, unable to take his eyes off of Jessica. "I know she doesn't need my protection but it still kills me that I failed her.I can't do that again!"

"Of course I will. Let me know if I hurt you," Trish says. Usually this would be a ridiculous request, given their vast difference in size and strength, but she is sincere. She is very careful as she wraps his hand, glancing over at both Danny and Jessica periodically to check on them.

"It isn't your fault, I'm sure," she tried to comfort him. "I'm sure you did everything you could, I know you would never let her be hurt if you could stop it. Jess doesn't exactly always aid peoples efforts at protecting her."

"Hey, screw you," Jessica muttered, but she isn't serious in tone. Lifting her head, she backs Trish up. "She's right, it wasn't your fault. I'm the idiot that kept trying to attack him. Fuck, that was...I've never seen someone like that."

She shook her head, still pale and shaken, but her eyes are sharper now. "He took our powers," Jessica explained at Trish's question from before, even as she opened her mouth to ask yet again. "Not just that, took them and took them on for himself. So when he hit us, or we hit him, we had no strength, but he did."

Trish's eyes got huge, horrified. "But...then he could have killed you!"

Jessica shrugged, her mouth pressing into a thin line. "The man killed kids and his own brother, so not surprising."

"So why didn't he? He's ranted about how we're wasting his time and messing up his schedule, but when we told him no, when we promised him we'd never stop till he paid for what he did to those kids, he didn't kill us! I would have! So either he's so sure we can't touch him or he's an idiot! And after today, thinking you're untouchable is a mistake for us and now for him. Especially if he thinks having my powers is going to protect him. If anyone is aware of weakness in those powers it’s me! Ask Danny about that, he's the first person to bring me to my knees since I got my powers!" Luke muttered.

"How?" Jessica asked sharply, narrowing her eyes as she turned to look at Luke. "I thought you had no weaknesses. What did he do?"

But although her voice is hard, she is speaking in fear for him. Seeing Luke being hurt had badly shaken her, more than she herself being hurt. She had thought Luke to be the one person in her life who was invulnerable.

She started to try to move off the bed, but Trish put her hands on her shoulders.

"Don't even think about it, Jessica. Sit your ass down right now!"

"What are you, hospital security? I'm fine," Jessica protested, but Trish didn't let go.

"I am today, and I say sit down. Now."

Jessica was going to ignore her, but when she saw the tears in Trish's eyes, she relented. "Fine."

Luke tries to laugh. "Well he literally knocked the crap out of me with that fist of his. I learned that with enough force I can be concussed. See my skin is invulnerable and I can heal quickly but my organs, my brain are all just like anyone else'. A strong enough shockwave can hurt me. Problem is the only person that's ever been able to do that even slightly is unconscious."

Luke looks at Jessica sternly when she keeps moving. "You stay put or I swear to God, broken hand or not, I will put you over my knee!"

"What are you, my father?" Jessica scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I got the message, I'm sitting. Even though if you ask me, what we need to be doing is going after the son of a bitch before he takes another child."

"Don't be stupid," Trish burst out with. A few tears escape before she wipes them away angrily. "You might not care what happens to you, but other people do."

Jessica shifts, uncomfortable as usual around emotion, and exhaled, reaching to touch Trish's

hand. Trish took it in hers, squeezing gently while minding her bruised knuckles, and got herself back in control, although she kept glancing worriedly towards Danny.

"Okay, I got it. Okay," Jessica muttered. "I'll use old fashioned, lame computer research for a little bit. Can I at least get a damn drink?" She looked at Luke hopefully, wanting not only the drink, but for him to come closer.

Luke walks to the bed and lies next to Jessica.

"Trish, thanks for the help, but you should go to Danny, make sure he's the first face he sees when he wakes up."

He put his arm around Jessica."Well, that went all kinds of wrong. Hope you got a plan B?"

Danny is sleeping in the other room, slowly rebuilding his Chi, but it will still be hours before he'll be awake and maybe a day or two before he can use the ironfist again in any way. Trish nods and leaves the room, first telling them to get her if either need anything. Jessica has no intention of doing so.

Lying down beside Danny, Trish wraps her arm around his waist and rests her cheek on his chest.

"Thanks for helping Jess," she whispered. "I love you. Please be okay."

Jessica leaned into Luke, letting her head rest against his shoulder. "Seeing as I didn't know the man existed until ten minutes ago, no. Fuck, this is a mess." She paused, then asked with a guilty glance towards the room's door, "is Danny really going to be okay?"

Kissing the top of Jessica head, Luke nodded. "I've never seen him use his power like that. It’s usually him knocking the crap out of people. But when I put him in bed I checked his pulse. It was steady, his breathing was normal. I'm more worried about you.I love you, Jessica but you smell like old beer and maybe urine." He sniffed his own shirt. "No,the urine is me. Huh. Must have fell in something and honestly I'm too damn tired to do anything about it."

Danny somehow feels Trish's presence and still asleep, slides his arm around her. Trish cuddles closer to Danny, closing her eyes. She isn't tired physically, but emotionally she is strained, and she lets herself give into it a little, crying softly as she continues to curl into him.

Jessica sniffed Luke's shoulder, then attempted to wrinkle her nose before realizing this was a bad move and flinching in pain.

"Yeah, you reek, dude. Definitely rolled around in something rank." She sighed, her voice dropping as she admits, "I thought...I thought he might hurt you. Worse, I mean. I...I didn't know what to do."

She had reacted on impulse bred of emotion, and now with the immediate danger died down, the emotion is less sharp and urgent, but not absent. With physical pain now manageable, anxiety, fear, and anger are threatening to rear up and take control.

"I dont have a plan. I don't know what the hell to do, and I need to."

Luke softly laughs. "Maybe my smelly shirt will take him out, that or a nuke." He pauses a second. "Thing is, I was ok if I died if it meant you didn't. Seeing you get hurt was scarier than anything he could do to me. You think Trish is ok? She seemed really shaken up but I get the feeling she's kind of pro at this. Maybe she should have been a doctor instead of a actress."

Closing his eyes, Luke tried to ignore how badly he smells. "I'm just gonna shut my eyes for a minute."

It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep.

"I don't want you to do that," Jessica said emphatically. "Try to protect me at your own expense of life. I want you alive. I need you."

She looks away, embarrassed and flushed, as she realizes what she just said. "I hope Trish will be okay," she mumbled, sighing. "She's been though a lot. I've put her through a lot. I just hope she's strong enough now not to fall back to self destruct to cope."

She could be talking about her self as much as Trish but doesnt notice. "She's patched me up a lot over the years, and her self sometimes even. Her mother beat her, you know," she said quietly. "Before I stopped her.”

As Luke fell asleep, Jessica kept her arm around him, too wired to join him in sleep. She rubs his arm, alert and anxious, mind spinning. On impulse, mouth dry, she leans in near his ear, barely breathing out the words that choke her when she even thinks them.

"I love you, Luke."

\--


	12. Chapter 12

It’s actually been about a few weeks since the road trip with Trish, Jessica, and Luke. Things have been moving smoothly with Trish, and Danny is truly happy with where they’re at. Not to mention she’s been excelling at her training. She has a natural affinity. Danny had no intention of celebrating his birthday; his partners wanting to throw him a massive public party just leaves a bad taste in his mouth. But now he has Trish and she makes everything besides her seem so unimportant to him.

And tonight will actually be the official public event for them being a couple, both being high profile, with her a celebrity and him the CEO of a billion-dollar corporation. They’re gonna draw attention to themselves, but Trish is worth it, he’d do anything for her. 

Danny had stayed at Trish’s place the few nights before his party since his penthouse is being prepared for his party, and he had made the decision to move all his parent’s belongings into storage and begin to make the place someplace he and Trish could enjoy together. Tonight the only present he wants is Trish saying she’ll move in with him. He even made a key for her and planned on showing her his secret elevator to get in unnoticed if she needs to. 

Danny stood in front of Trish’s mirror, messing with his tie, trying to get it straight, not quite happy with it or the idea of having dozens of strangers in his place. He takes a deep sigh, almost wanting to cancel the whole thing, but he catches Trish’s reflection behind him in the mirror.

“My God, you take my breath away every time I see you. Is it possible you wake up more beautiful than the night before? ” Looking down at his watch. “The car will be here to get us soon. We could blow this whole thing off, order a pizza and just stay in bed.”

Trish is pretty sure she’s falling for Danny Rand.

She’s always been the sort of girl who fell for the wrong sort of man. Whether that happened to be an abusive producer, a junkie, or just a condescending jerk, she never seemed to be attracted to a genuinely good man who simply wanted to know the woman that she was rather than attach himself on the arm of Trish Walker and her bank account. But Danny was about as different from that as a person could be, and she was no less attracted for it. He certainly didn’t need her money or fame, as his own more than outranked hers, and he truly seemed to like her for herself. Not for her “public” persona or for the best parts of herself she tried to present, but for the complex, real person that she was, the woman Trish herself couldn’t always accept or show. She had yet to show him all of her more broken and bitter pieces, but for the first time, Trish was beginning to think there might be someone beyond her adoptive sister who could see them and still see her as worth being with.

She’s never enjoyed her own birthdays; they had been more about publicity shoots than anything as a child and teenager, and as an adult, they marked another year older that might cause the public to discard her as “too old” to be relevant. But Danny’s birthday had no such stigma to her, and she intends to fully enjoy it with him. She wants to make a good impression on everyone in his life that is important and those that aren’t too; she wants them too to think her worthy of him. 

She is somewhat nervous as she wraps her arms around Danny, smiling up at him. 

“It’s your birthday, Mr. Rand. You call all the shots. If that’s what you want, that’s what we do.” 

Wrapping himself around her, he kisses the top of her head so not to mess up her makeup.

"Thank you for saying that, but this is what my partners want, to hell with my feelings. But as long as I have you by my side, I can make it through this. But if I had my way, it would be just us, your sister and Luke on my balcony with some pizza and some beer, giving each other crap."

As tempted as he is to ask her right now to move in with him, he decides to wait. His phone buzzes with a text from the driver who is down stairs waiting. 

"Looks like it's time. " Gently lifting up her chin, Danny smiles at her. "Ready for the world?"

"Mmm....does sound like a good time," Trish agreed, smiling and nuzzling against him. "But we can make it fun on our own. It's your day, you can play the eccentric rich guy and make things more interesting if you like." 

She grinned, thinking of some of their road trip antics. Stretching to kiss him, she nods and holds her arm out for him to take. "Ready. They know I'm coming?"

"My partners? Yeah, they know. There will be a ton of paparazzi vultures waiting for us, because my partners alerted them." 

Walking with her out the door, Danny takes her arm. After a short elevator ride they step outside to the waiting car. Being a gentleman, he helps Trish into the car and follows her in, sitting next to her with an arm around her.

After a drive uptown they arrived to Danny's building, and just as expected a bunch of the press are waiting for them. As the car stops Danny signals the driver to wait outside for a moment. 

"Trish, you've become the most important person to me in the world." Reaching into his pocket, Danny pulls out a key to his penthouse and holds it out in front of her.”I love you and I want to wake up to your face, fall asleep in your arms...I want you to move in. I want us to make that place our home. Or your place, I honestly don't care as long as you're there with me."

Paparazzi was something Trish was certainly used to, so she prepared herself for her most dazzling smiles to flash for their benefit.

"Hope you told Jess, she hates crowds. And pictures." 

She relaxes in the car with Danny, leaning into him and enjoying being close. When he holds out a key to her, she blinks, not getting it at first. Then as he continues to explain his intentions, she begins to smile. She gave a squeak, then threw her arms around him tightly. 

"Yes! Yes, I am so ready for this!" She drew back a little, looking at him closely. "You're sure?"

"If I wasn't so sure I wouldn't be so nervous. Trish, you made me nervous... I punched a dragon in the heart and yet the thought of you saying no was more terrifying to me! I love you. I want to share my world with you and want you to share yours with me."

"I make you nervous?" She ran a hand over his neck gently, marveling. "I thought I only made fans nervous. There's not a reason to be scared of me. I feel the same about you." 

She paused, her hand stilling against him. "I love you. But...I'm not perfect, you've read the tabloids, right?" She says this lightly, but there is some anxiety in her face. "I'm still working on being who I want to be."

"Trish, who the hell wants to be perfect, perfect people never have to try, never want to grow. I know you have a past, I do too,” Danny reassured her. “Trish, I've killed so many people protecting Kun-Lun. It was my duty but it is still part of my past and it haunts me. But you make me feel like I'm getting a fresh start at life. So let's support each other." He leans in to kiss her. "I want to be with you. Now we better get inside before they try to break in to take their pictures."

Danny takes a deep breath with Trish’s hand in his. He opens the door to the car and using his free hand, shields his eyes from the blinding lights from the flashes. Helping Trish out, the couple steps away from the car holding hands, putting on his best smile, as people start shouting questions and comments about the couple. 

"Everyone Thank you, it's good to see you all, but I have no statement for you tonight other than I hope you all have a pleasant evening."

Reassured, Trish kisses him back, squeezing his hand tightly. "You're pretty smooth for a guy who has a glow in the dark fist," she playfully. Then more seriously, thinking with some somberness that she had no idea that he, like Jessica, is haunted by the deaths she had caused, "I forget sometimes how lucky I am. I want you to feel just as supported as you make me feel." 

Bracing herself for the flood of paparazzi, Trish grips Danny's hand tightly, giving everyone a bright smile and slight wave as she keeps up with him. She stays quiet, wondering how Jessica will respond to the crowd. She hopes she won't get too insanely drunk to cope, and that Luke knows her well enough by now to see when she's reached her limit of edginess.

Danny escorts Trish inside the building. Wendell and a team of guards are at the door to keep the press from getting in and walk the couple to the elevator.

"When is your shift over Wendell? You should come to the party, that way I'll recognize a few people at my own party."

"Wish I could but I'm working the entire night and your place tonight is not my kind of scene." 

Danny reaches into his pocket and hands Wendell some cash. "How about you order your people something."

Wendell smiles as Trish and Danny gets on the elevator. "By the way you both look very happy, and Ms. Walker you look beautiful." 

Danny kisses Trish's cheek and smiles. "Yes, yes she does..Goodnight Wendell. "

About 20 minutes earlier Luke and Jessica arrived at an empty office building across the street from Rand. Luke leads Jessica down to the basement through a hallway to a door with a keypad. After entering a code the door opens to a tunnel running under the stree. At the end of the tunnel is an elevator. 

"Danny uses this to get in and out of his building for his nightly missions. I don't like dozens of cameras and flashes in my face,” Luke explained. "I figured you'd probably hate that even more."

The elevator stops in a spare bedroom in the penthouse. The door is locked to this room so nobody can see them come out. "Want to go drink all his top shelf booze before folks start to annoy us?"

"That's too bad," Trish said to Wendell sincerely, smiling at him. "Maybe you can hang out with us another night?" 

She smiled at his compliment, squeezing Danny's arm. "Thank you...I'm very happy. I've been having a wonderful time lately." 

She follows Danny inside, interested in who she will meet and what the night will bring. 

Across the street Jessica stays close to Luke as they enter the building in his underground system set up, face screwed up in distaste as she thinks of the massive crowd she had just bypassed. 

"I grew up with a superstar and I still don't get it. How the he'll do those people do that shit and not expect to get punched out? I swear, if someone brushes against me, let alone asks me about being a so called hero or what color underwear Trish prefers or some other bullshit, I'm knocking them out. Danny's rich, he can post bail." 

She brightens at his suggestion of alcohol. "Knew the guy was a good one to hang with for a reason. Show the way."

Luke put a hand on her waist as they move through the arriving crowds of people, including celebrities, titans of industry and politicians. For a second he thought he even saw Tony Stark but it turned out to just be Robert Downey Jr. Well that was disappointing.

"I don't get it.Danny doesn't know any of these people, just a bunch of egotistical entitled vultures. I know Danny this isn't something he would ever want." 

Getting to the bar, he leans against it so he can face out into the crowd. "Two bourbons, no ice, leave the bottle." Luke holds up his glass to Jessica's. "We'll have to throw him a proper party later on.

As the elevator doors open Danny and Trish are greeted with a rush of people with fake smiles, wishing him happy birthday. Danny tightly holds to Trish's hand as the make their way through the crowd, greeting folks as they move. It's a good 40 minutes before things die down around them. Finally, a moment alone with Trish.

"My God this is your life all the time isn't it? I'm amazed that you can deal with it so well. I don't think I could do this without you here with me."

Jessica lets Luke keep his hand on her as they work through the crowd, grateful for the touch. It feels steadying, grounding, although she wouldn't tell him that. She relaxes as they reach the bar, clinks her glass to his, and throws it back.

"Why the hell are they all here? They just want free drinks, hope to get famous? Why doesn't he tell them to go screw themselves? I would. Hey, I can do it for him, it can be my gift." 

Trish is very used to the rush of attention and fawning fakeness of the crowd and so shows very little reaction of any stress as they descend on them. She notices how much easier it is to smile through though with Danny beside her, holding her hand. When they finally have a moment to catch their breath and Danny expresses his overwhelm, she smiles, shaking her head.

"Can't say I love it, but I'm used to it. Playing nice is my livelihood. It was scarier when I was ten than it is now, I used to think they were going to crush me." 

She smirked, giggling a little. "When I got too sick of it I would just get Jess to act out, divert some of the attention her way. It worked. She made my mother ashamed of her and focused on how mad she was at her for embarrassing her instead of what I did or said wrong, for a change."

Looking around the room, Danny smiles when he sees Luke and Jessica at the bar. "Finally some familiar faces. Come on, let's go tell them our good news." 

Leading Trish towards the bar, Luke and Danny greet each other happily. 

"Happy birthday Danny, and Trish WOW! You look...unusually happy…too happy. Something is up?"

"Thanks for coming, it's nice to see actual people that care about us."

Danny glances at Jessica and smirks. "Jessica, you wore your formal leather jacket for me. You do like me." 

Danny looks to the bartender, asking for 2 more glasses, and Luke then pours another round of drinks for everyone, holding up his glass.

"Happy birthday brother and here is to getting absolutely smashed!" Danny holds up his glass touching with everyone else's. He takes a long drink and slips an arm around Trish.

"So yeah we got some news. I asked Trish to move in with me here in this place and she said yes!" Danny has the biggest stupid grin on his face.

Luke wraps his massive frame around both of them, lifting both off the floor." WHAT? THAT'S AMAZING CONGRATS YOU TWO!"

He turns to Jessica, putting his arm around her. "Damn, if I ask you now I'm gonna look like a dick just trying to keep up with them.”

"I promise Jessica, I'll take great care of your sister,” Danny looked over at her, speaking earnestly.

Jessica smirks back at Danny when he approaches. "Yeah, brushed my hair and wore deodorant too, feel special all right." 

Trish returns Jessica's smirk but smiles genuinely after, knowing that it meant Jessica truly did care about Danny that she came. "Danny, that's almost a confession of deep love from her." 

She giggles,startled but happy, when Luke hugs her and lifts her and Danny off the floor in his massive embrace. "Thanks...wow, a little dizzy!" 

Jessica smiled at them both, genuinely happy for them, and wrapped an arm around Luke in return. "Cool. Warning you, Danny, she uses up all the hot water in showers, hogs covers, and makes a lot of noise in the morning. Then again we know you're one of those crazy people who thinks mornings are cool, so I'm sure you'll get along fine." 

Trish smirked at her, giving her a light, affectionate push. "If I can live with you and my mom, I can live with anyone and be a shining beacon of consideration in comparison."

Jessica regarded Danny seriously after his promise, drink empty, hand tight around the glass. "You better. Protecting Trish is the most important thing in my life, and I've fucked it up enough. Don't join me in that." 

Trish regarded her softly, understanding that from Jessica, this is more or less a declaration of her fierce love for her. "You haven't messed anything up, Jess. I know you always do what you can."

Looking up at Luke, Jessica leaned into the circle of his arm. "Well, what are we waiting for? Want to copy these dorks and move in together?"

Luke looks at Jessica grins. “We can do that when you let me call you Jess. And we find a place we both like." 

Danny starts to say, "You know there are 3 bedrooms here-" 

Luke quickly jumps in. "AWW HELL NO! I'm not waking up to-“ he waves his hands around Trish and Danny, “All that everyday for the rest of my life, with your chipper morning routines. I love you both but y'all get on my nerves in the morning. I want to wake up to Miss Grouch here."

"You can call me Jess," Jessica shrugged. "Trish does, it's Jessie that gets you knocked out."

"Hm, that would be cool," Trish mused, considering Danny's suggestion. She smirked, cutting her eyes at Jessica slyly. "It would be like a sleepover that never ends." 

Jessica's expression mirrors Luke's horror. "No. Hell no. World of no. Squared. I can kind of handle living with Trish, but two of her that make out with each other, way too much to ask."

Luke starts laughing and pointing at Danny "She thinks you're a woman, must be your legs!"

"Well at least she stopped calling me a virgin monk. Baby steps I guess. Well the offer stands if you need a place to crash."

Luke pulls another round of drinks and the room gets dark, a bright light comes from the direction of the kitchen as a server wheels up a huge cake. The room chimes in singing Happy birthday, and the cake stops in front of Danny and Trish.Luke moves to his side, putting his hand on Danny's shoulder. 

"Make a wish Danny!" The crowd starts shouting. 

After a brief pause Danny leans forward pretending to blow out his candles, but he actually slyly just snaps his fingers, causing a tiny shockwave that puts out the candles.

Luke leans in and whispers. "I think that's cheating! Not sure you'll get your wish."

Danny smiles at Trish. "I already got it, besides who wants to eat something someone blew their breath all over...that's gross!"

"Well as much as you stick your tongue down my sister's throat, I'm guessing you're an impure monk now," Jessica shrugged. She smirked, looking at Danny's legs deliberately with Luke's comment. 

"Hm, they are pretty smooth and shapely, Danielle."

"Hey, don't make fun of him on his birthday," Trish admonished. She kissed Danny's cheek, then ran one pedicured toe sneakily over the back of his leg. "Feels manly enough to me." 

As the cake is wheeled in front of Danny, Trish sings for him, smiling, and then gave him another quick kiss after he made his wish. Jessica crosses her arms, refraining from singing, but she smiles a little and doesnt gag when Trish kisses him. 

"Hey, as long as you two don't start feeding each other. It's a birthday, not a wedding."

"Danielle? I kind of like that name." Luke repeats the name to himself as if Jessica just implanted an earworm into his head, then another when she mentioned wedding cake. "You trying to give them ideas? They just agreed to live together." 

Danny does the whole traditional cutting the first slice, which Luke quickly grabs for himself. "I should taste test this for you, make sure it's not poison."

Danny grins at Luke. "Well that is always a possibility.I mean wouldn't be the first time. It could be one of those eat you from the inside out kind of poisons."

Luke just shrugs his shoulders and keeps eating. "I been filling up on bourbon all night long, I'm sure it will destroy any poison." 

Danny looks at Jessica and Trish. "He's so pretty and so dumb."

"I'm pretty sure they are sappy enough to come up with the basics on their own," Jessica said dryly. "No need to go on about baby carriages." 

She raised an eyebrow at Luke. "You like the name, huh? What, you going girl on me secretly? Will I have to call you Lucy?" Reaching around Luke, she snags the cake slice he just snatched from Danny and takes a bite. "We die, we die together, eating your sickeningly sweet cake. Hm, Appropriate. It matches the Trishanny display."

"Did you just give us a celebrity relationship name"? Trish asked, tilting her head, and Jessica shrugged. "Yep, seems ridiculous enough to be appropriate."

The party keeps going for a few more hours, winding down about 2 a.m. Danny had suggested that Luke and the ladies hang out with him on the outside balcony while the staff starts cleaning up. After all the guest have left it's just the couples drinking and joking.

Suddenly Danny goes quiet. He stands and walks towards the edge of the balcony. 

"What's up Danny, you feeling sick?" Luke asked.

In a swift movement Danny snatches an arrow fired for Trish's head. Luke jumps to his feet putting himself in front of Jessica and Trish, expecting more arrows, but none come. 

"It's over, whoever it was did what they meant to do and are now long gone,” Danny told him.

Examining the arrow, Danny notices a piece of paper tied to it. After reading it, he drops it to the ground, clearly shaken. Luke picks up the note and reads it aloud.

"Miss, you. Colleen XOXO." He looks up, frowning. "Danny, It may not even be her, it could be someone messing with you!" 

Danny shook his head. "No it's her, she's with them again. I shouldn't have let her try to take them on by herself! Now they have her again!"

Jessica is pretty drunk by the time the party is winding down, but not enough so to be obnoxious or ready to black out from it. Trish is a little past tipsy and closer to drunk herself and keeps giggling periodically, clinging onto whichever people are close, and Jessica even allows that to be herself a couple of times. Both their moods plummet immediately when Danny catches the arrow. Trish freezes, her face draining of color, and Jessica grabs her arm, yanking her down flat to the balcony ground and covering her body with her own, even as Luke jumps in front of both of them. She doesn't get up or let Trish up even when Danny said they were gone; she wasn't certain of that herself. 

"Colleen? Who the hell is that, why would she try to kill Trish?! Danny, call your security to go after her!" 

"Danny...Jessica, what?" Trish starts, totally confused and scared, but Jessica hisses at her.

"Shhh, be quiet, and stay still!"

Danny snaps the arrow between his two fingers before turning to help Trish up. " Seriously, it's over and its pointless sending security. Even if they caught her it would just be sending them to their deaths, and I don't want to make that call to their families. Come on, let's go inside and I'll explain everything." 

Luke steps in front of Danny, holding a hand on his shoulder and looking concerned." Danny, if they took Colleen, then Misty??" 

Danny interrupts him. "They either broke her like Colleen or they killed her. The Hand doesn't keep prisoners!" Looking away from Luke. "For both your sakes, I hope they killed her or you might have to. Come on Trish, let's get you inside."

Luke looks over to Jessica. "This is messed up! Just when he started to be happy again!"

Trish clings to Danny, still about five steps behind from shock and alcohol. "What...why are they killing me? I don't know them...." Then she added as an afterthought, "Oh my god, it's one of my fans! I have a stalker, but this time they want to assassinate me!"

"Trish, board the reality train," Jessica snapped. Her posture is rigid, and she is hypervigilant, eyes darting at every noise. "That was no sad Patsy fan. Go inside for fucks sake!" 

She shoves at her, grabbing Luke's arm to follow them. Once inside she rounds on Danny, her fear and anger narrowing in towards him, the only person there to target. 

"Who the fuck are those women and why are they trying to kill Trish? And how the hell are they so deadly you're scared to send men with guns after them?!"

Trish is still catching up, her eyes wide. "I could have died....again. I'm like a cat...how many times have I almost died now?"

Danny, softly rubbing Trish's back."She didn't want to kill Trish, if she did, I would have been able to detect her. Here name is Colleen Wing, my ex. Last I heard she and Misty, Luke's kinda of ex, were in Singapore trying to shut down a Hand Stronghold. It would have been the 9th one." 

He looks over at Luke. "Sorry if I made you think I wasn't in contact with them, I know you were worried about me."

"That is a conversation for another time Danny! But we will have it!"

"I guess The Hand got wise to who was attacking them and laid a trap for them, broke Colleen's mind. If she's lucky they killed Misty, I don't think you could deal with her if they broke her too."

"So between you and them, a society of ninja assassins are highly pissed off and now want some pay back! Well ain't that a bitch!"Luke growled. 

Danny squeezed Trish’s hand. "Trish, I was so concerned about how I would deal with your world I neglected to think about how mine would affect you. You didn't ask for this, nor do you deserve it."

Trish leans into Danny, her head swiveling between him and Luke as she tries to process what Danny is saying. 

"They didn't want to kill me? They wanted to kill Danny?"

"No," Jessica corrected, frowning. "He's saying that wasn't an attempted murder at all, right? Just some kind of twisted, show off message. For Danny, not her. Apparently they are a sucky shot." 

She frowned at him, still abrupt in her communication. "So how is this going to affect her? What exactly kind of revenge do they want here?"

Luke chimes in. "Colleen doesn't want revenge on Danny! It’s them. They did something to her mind. That's what you're saying right Danny?"

"They torture and twist people minds, until they're just mindless drones,” Danny started. 

Again Luke jumps in. "Drones that can fire an arrow 1200 feet against 50 mile an hour wind and put it right were she wanted it."

Danny looks away. "I have to stop her. Put her down before they make her into a mass murderer!"

"Them being a society of ninja assassins," Jessica recalled. "Who are using his ex to get to him, through his new girl? What the hell, you turn them down in joining their kill society and they start shooting message arrows? I thought ninja stars were their weapon of choice." 

Then she stopped, her heart skipping a beat. "Wait, what? Twist people's minds? Like...brainwashing, or mind control?" Her thoughts immediately fly to Kilgrave. "How many are there?" 

Trish chimes in. "They can make people murder if they don't want to? Jessica, it's like Kilgrave!" 

Jessica glares at her. "I got it, thanks."

"Who's Killgrave?" Both Danny and Luke ask at the same time. 

"Don't laugh at me but it's like magic, yes magic does exist. Hence this." Danny held up his glowing fist. "My powers aren't science or genetic, they're mystical, magical. I don't know how The Hand Brainwashes someone, I just saw it's results. And it's permenant. The only way to break it is death. At least that's the only thing that's worked so far."

"Can't we capture her, lock her away?" Luke asked.

Danny shakes his head no. "There is no prison that can hold a member of the hand..Not that I know of. And as to why they want me dead, It's because for centuries they've been trying to find and invade Kun-Lun and every time an Ironfist stopped them."

"I told you," Jessica muttered to Luke. "Remember? Mind control guy?" Both she and Trish look somber and far more sober as Danny explains. 

"Are you sure there's nothing we can do for this woman?" Jessica asks. "Something or someone has to break mind control, it can't just be hopeless. You know her, you have magic."

"He doesn't want to hurt her," Trish said quietly, seeing this. "He cares about her."

"Well, she wants to kill him, she could have killed you!"

Danny snaps. "DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME! THIS HAS GONE ON FOR CENTURIES!" Quickly calming himself down. "I'm sorry, look not only do I have the power of past fists, but I have their knowledge, and not one knew how to fix what has been done. The only thing is to put them down. Also you asked how many. The Hand is Legion.Their numbers are endless and I'm stuck fighting a war that I can never win till I die, and then the next fist picks up where I ended forever and ever. I'm so damn tired, I just wanted a night with the people I love with my curse touching them!"

Trish squeezes Danny, rubbing her hand over his back. "We're here with you and for you. We will figure this out. And we'll help you. Together." 

Jessica nodded, ignoring his outburst. "Once someone challenges me or threatens my people, I don't take it lying down and I don't stop. We will get this. It can't be hopeless."

Luke is not used to seeing hopeless Danny, it's as if the world was tilted and just not right. 

"Just because something has gone on for a long time doesn't mean it's endless, just means no one has discovered how to end it. And if I have faith in anyone to find it, that would be you Danny. Besides none of those other ironfist had us by their side, so we're gonna do what we have to do and that's all that's to it."

"Besides, you've been training Trish, sure she doesn't look like she can right now seeing how she's tipsy Trish right now, but I'm sure she can handle herself." 

Danny perks up a little, smiling at Trish. "Yeah, she's a badass and looks good doing it. So I'm not gonna worry, we'll finish this crap then I'm gonna live happliy with Trish, hang with my brother, and Jessica will drink all my booze and make fun of me.”

Jessica rolled her eyes a little but didn't disagree. "Damn straight. Now that we all kumbaya and rah rah pep talked together, you gonna step away from the ledge?"

Trish looked at her, confused, before the metaphors clicked in. "Hey, I'm not tipsy!" 

Jessica gave her a light push and Trish almost toppled over before she grabbed and steadied her. "Funny, looks like you're tipping to me."

Danny smiles again taking Trish off Jessica's hands. "I wonder if she'll even remember any of this? This is actually the first time I've seen her drunk, kind of cute. Hope she's not a puker though." 

Luke moves behind Jessica, sliding his hands onto her waist and resting his chin awkwardly on her shoulder, whispering into her ear. "I'll admit it, I'm kind of jealous of them. We should find a place we both like."

"Nah, she's going to get obnoxiously cuddly, and then she'll go to sleep," Jessica said casually. "And snore. And if you share a bed, kick." 

As if on cue, Trish turns and nuzzles into Danny, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his waist.

Jessica leans back into Luke, not self conscious of it as she might have been in front of the others before. She covers his hands with hers. "Why jealous? What, you want me to go blonde and clingy? She wrinkled her nose, playful. "My brain cells have lost out to vodka enough already."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will get back to the power stealing Innis in next chapter, slight side journeys for this chapter and last.

Jessica is very used to being alone.

It’s in her personality type, partly. Even as a kid and teenager, she had always been an introvert, not inclined towards having large numbers of friends. She was more likely to hang out in her room on weekends than go out to party or have sleepovers, and the thought of clubs or team sports had always made her itch. But as she grew older, her simple preference to have some time to herself and to avoid group events had become less about preference and more about self preservation. She kept to herself, because the alternative of making connections with people she would inevitably hurt or lose felt like far too much to bear.

She had not even dated until she was eighteen years old and in college. Partly because, living with a child star like Trish, she was sure that any guy who expressed an interest in her was actually only wanting to get to Trish and her celebrity status; partly because, between grieving her family and trying to hide her powers, throwing dating into the picture was far too much to juggle and something she had no interest in. What kind of teenager, whose biggest concerns were sports and video games, would really be interested in someone with Jessica’s baggage?

She had entered college living with Trish, once they moved out of Dorothy’s guardianship, and this had lasted for a couple of years until Trish’s addictions spiraled out of control. Until Kilgrave, Jessica’s college boyfriend Sterling was the only man she had ever lived with other than her own father.

She had no experience for ten years now in voluntarily living with another man. The very thought of doing so should make her bristle, and she was a little on edge when she thought about the fact that she was about to go through with it for only the second time in her life that counted. But somehow, it was different with Luke than it would be with anyone else. Most things were. Somehow, even if she felt anxiety over the anticipated reality of waking up each morning and going to sleep each night beside him, of all the ins and outs of a daily routine with another human being who wasn’t her sister, Jessica nevertheless had hope that with Luke, it would work out to be okay. This wasn’t a normal perspective for her, but hell, the two of them had already surpassed every pessimistic expectation she had harbored. Why not keep trying to beat the odds?

It didn’t make sense for them to keep trading off staying on Luke’s couch or in her crowded, dismal office/apartment, not when those overnights were becoming more and more frequent. Trish had told her over and over that she needed to separate her office and working space from her home and living space, and as much as she hated to listen to anything her sister told her to do, there was some truth to that. It was irritating to be in the middle of sex and hear her office voicemail pick up with a client’s voice, that was for damn sure.

And there was more to this than strict practicality. If she were honest with herself, Jessica knew that she wanted to live with Luke. She wanted to see him every day, to have that expectation that they would end up sharing a bed, sharing simple living space. She wanted to have the comfort of his presence near hers, to have someone to talk to and trade banter with. She had grown so used to being a loner, far beyond her naturally introverted inclinations, that she had forgotten how cold and empty it could feel to be alone.

She couldn’t say the words, at least not where anyone beyond herself could hear. But Jessica knew that she loved Luke. She felt a depth of emotion and connection with him that she had not even felt for Sterling, and she had certainly thought at the time, ten impossibly long years before, that she knew what it was to love and be in love, to be loved by a man in return. She had barely been legal drinking age. What the hell had she known?

She had known Luke for a far shorter time than she knew Sterling, and yet Jessica knew with certainty that she loved him and was far more loved by him than what she had experienced with Sterling. And that had to mean that living with Luke was going to be okay. If it wasn’t going to be, well, better figure that out sooner rather than later, before the failure and loss would hurt any more than it already would.

The apartment they chose together was in Harlem; Luke felt far more attached to his city and being within its limits than Jessica felt about hers. On the day of their move in, Jessica had very little to take with her beyond clothes, toiletries, a very limited collection of dishes and utensils, and a few keepsakes and photos from her childhood. The furniture in her apartment was almost entirely left behind, since she was still renting it as an office space.

Knowing Trish, she was probably going to force some housewarming party or gift on them, whether or not it was wanted. Jessica hoped that it would be the latter rather than the former. And she really hoped the woman knew any gift she gave her should be some type of alcohol. That was definitely her idea of a good present.

Luke had even less to move to their new place, mostly clothes and a few boxes of books. This is an opportunity for him and Jessica to build this place up from scratch, furnishing it with stuff they picked together. He figured they better start with a bed that can stand up to their shenanigans. 

He was so grateful Jessica agreed to make their home in Harlem. It was a concession to him whether she knew it or not, one he's grateful for. He feels much more at home in Harlem, but he also made sure there was enough distance from Harlem's Paradise so that club business doesn't follow him home.

The apartment they chose also had great bones, two bedrooms, tall clean walls, hard wood floors and bonus central air and heating, a rare find in Harlem. Not too many other people live in the building either, for now at least.

Luke stands next to Jessica after the landlord left them alone in their new place together, his arm wrapped around her. 

"This place..You get this is where we really start a life together? And I'm all in, not a doubt in my mind this is gonna be great!"

Jessica leaned into Luke's arm. Although generally physical affection was something she shied away from, she was getting more and more used to it from Luke. She would never admit it, but it was beginning to feel more than something normal and close to something needed. She had never been one to care much about the roof over her head and what it looked like, as long as she had one. Her previous apartment was proof of that. She had been desensitized and even somewhat put off by fancy places, after living in the Walker home and being put up in fancy places by Kilgrave. But this place is comfortable, nice but not obnoxious, and if Luke is happy, she is too. 

"It works for me," she says. "Gonna be funny for a while though. You see how many people look at us when we were moving in? Can't decide if they're unable to believe a guy who looks like you would pick me, or if they just think I'm actually a cop undercover, gonna bust them up."

Luke kisses Jessica on the cheek, then starts walking around the apartment. "Let them think whatever they want out there. In here the world falls away. I'm thinking we turn that second bedroom into an office for us both, I can do some stuff for the club and you can do your case stuff there sometimes. But no clients please. Let's keep all that away from here."

He stopped to stand in front of a large blank wall. "What do think? A bar maybe? Put a bookshelf in that corner by the window to catch the sun and a nice chair to read? Ok that last one is more for me, but we can still do it right?"

"Oh, believe me, I don't want to drag any clients in here," Jessica agreed, following him to face the wall he regarded. "Hell, maybe we should ban Trish and Danny too. Keep this all to ourselves." 

She cocked her head at him, smirking. "Hey, I read. Police reports and cases, still. Just because I'm not a nerd like you..." 

She shook her head, still smiling. "By the way, thank you for not being lame enough to carry me across the threshold. Or were you scared to try?"

Luke turns grins at her. "That is reserved for a different first. And do you really think you could keep your sister away...YOUR SISTER?? She'll probably have a key made without our knowledge and come in and redecorate the place while we're sleeping. Note to self, invest in a burglar alarm. Just creeped myself out thinking about that."

Walking to the kitchen, he gives her a puzzled look. "Oh, this must be one of those kitchen things I've read about. I wonder how you use one?" He smirked. "I'm kidding, finally have a place I can make you dinner…or breakfast. Nah, knowing your sleeping habits it’s definitely dinner."

"First? If you're talking sex, we crossed that line long time ago," Jessica laughed. "What, you want a redo?" 

She groaned, rolling her eyes at his comment about Trish. "Oh I know. She was so disappointed I didn't do the teenaged girl diary thing, it would have been her top priority to steal it. Damn, should have kept a fake one and put stuff in it to freak her out....is it too late for that?"

She raised an eyebrow as she followed him into the kitchen. "Hey, don't look at me about the cooking. You think I learned how, spending my teenaged years living with rich people? And my mom sucked at it. I basically live off pizza, beef jerky, and booze."

"Don't worry, I got this. I used to hang out with some cooks when I was busing tables and picked up a few tips. Course fridge is empty now, guess I'm gonna have to do some shopping. And we're gonna need to get some kind of wifi, clean sheets. Damn we need a lot of stuff, but don't worry I got this, you won't have to sweat the details if you don't want to."

Luke walks back over to Jessica, taking her hand again. "Nod your head if you're happy and you love me." 

Luke's pocket starts ringing, and he gestures to Jessica to wait just a second while he answers. "Hold that thought."

It’s Danny on the phone, so Luke answers. "Yeah we got it, the place is all ours now. We got some work to do and some stuff to get. Any chance you and Trish can give us a few days before you drop by? Cool, thanks, we can get together this weekend.”

Hanging up, he turned his attention back to Jessica. "Now you were about to indicate how much you love me and I'm hoping it's even more now that your sister and Danny aren't gonna barge in, at least not for a few days."

“Shopping,” Jessica exhaled. It was not something she enjoyed; in fact, she avoided it whenever at all possible. “The last time I moved in somewhere, I just took some of the shit Trish didn’t want. Looks like I’m gonna be the stereotypical dude in this.”

When Luke took her hand, asking her to nod in indication of her feelings for him, Jessica bit the inside of her cheeks, averting her eyes. She does love him, and she’s pretty sure he knows she does too. Why else would he ask her to nod, rather than speak the words aloud? Still, it feels scary, even dangerous, to admit, as though tempting the universe to snatch him away. She is relieved when Danny’s phone call interrupts them and takes the opportunity to ease away, hoping he’ll be distracted enough to forget the request

. No such luck. When Luke turns back to her, she keeps her eyes to the side of him rather than directed towards him as she responds.

“I can’t say it.” 

She says this quietly, and she means it. It had been different when she spoke it before; Luke had been asleep, unable to hear her, and so it somehow felt like it didn’t count. She feels like if she would try, the words would choke her now. 

“I’m sorry.”

But after taking a breath, she does give one abrupt inclination of her head, what could, minimally, be interpreted as a nod. Even much makes her chest tighten with some anxiety.

Luke grins at Jessica shy gestures. “Hey, nod if you love me and I can have a puppy. Also nod if we can buy a Pee Wee Herman pinball machine...and another puppy.” 

Letting Jessica off the hook, he nods towards the balcony doors. “Check it out, babe, we can set up a grill and some chairs and hang out here sometimes. And on nights you get pissed at me for calling you adorable I can sleep out here.”

Jessica punched him in the arm, hiding her own smile. “Shut up, you ass. Who the hell is Pee Wee Herman, some potty training puppet?” 

She follows him out to the balcony, looking out at the view, posture more relaxed than usual. “So admit it. How many arms did you twist to get this place?” 

“Having two supers living in a building is good for business. Also the landlord now has a lifetime reserved VIP booth at my club. Totally worth it, not a multiple million dollar penthouse, but I think I’m going to love it here. But I was serious about the puppy, I always wanted one but never had a stable home to keep one.” Luke put an arm around her and held her close. 

“How about you? I’ve told all the things I want to do now that we have our own place, what about you? What do you want? Name it, if you can do anything in the world with this place what would it be? And a bar can’t be one, we already agreed on that.”

“Puppy…like, wet noses, puddles on the floor, and whimpering at 2 am puppy,” Jessica exhaled, shaking her head. “You wouldn’t go for a fish?”

Leaning into Luke’s arm, she regarded the room thoughtfully. “I never thought like that. Nothing was really ever mine, and it wasn’t anything I thought was long term. I guess I just want to be happy here. Have some kind of stability. What it looks like or what we do doesn’t matter, it’s more about what just being ours.” 

She rolled her eyes, smirking. “God, did you slip us both sap pills?”

“Hey, under this roof being sappy is acceptable. And I said I do,I want a puppy. A little beagle. I’ll call him Porthos. And you can add or not add anything you want as long as it’s not your sister.I’m still not ruling out her wanting to experiment on me.”

“No, sappy is never acceptable. It rhymes with crappy, so…tells you something.” 

Jessica furrowed her brow, tilting her head. “Porthos? Do I even want to know why?” 

Then she grinned, suddenly looking far closer to a mischievous 12 year old than usual. “She did say she wants to test if your insides are also impenetrable. Not totally sure that she was kidding.” She’s lying but hopes he can’t tell. “She also wondered about porous parts like your tongue, if they count as skin.”

“First off Porthos is the name of a character from my favorite book, The Three Musketeers. And Hell no! Don’t let your sister anywhere near my organs and especially nowhere near my tongue! Why are you two so weird? Like capital W weird.”

Luke pulled out his phone and started searching for items for the apartment, showing Jessica each item as he picks them. He knows it’s pointless but not because she doesn’t care, but because she honestly has no preference on such things. Hopefully after living together that will change and she’ll add things to express herself .

“The three musketeers? Thought that was a candy bar,” Jessica said sarcastically. “I don’t know how someone so hot can be such a huge nerd. Every time I think you’re a little cool you blow it all over again.”

Jessica hides a grin as Luke responds to her comment on Trish. As he shows her what he is picking for the apartment, she nods along, then eventually slides on his lap, straddling him so she is facing him. She still can’t tell him aloud she loves him, but she cups the back of his neck gently.

“You realize if I’m some nerd king that makes you my nerd queen right? Besides you never had to read The Three Musketeers in school or seen any of the movies? How is that possible? I have to at least get you to watch the Disney Version with Keifer Sunderland.”

Luke was not really a person that watches TV, but he loves watching movies, and now he can just imagine sitting on the couch with Jessica snuggled, against him watching The Three Musketeers…preferably with little Porthos laying at their feet. 

“Ok I’m ordering a TV so we can watch it together. That is non-negotiable. We’ll watch The Breakfast Club together. I’m gonna show you just how big of a nerd you fell in love with.”

“No, it doesn’t. It makes me someone who for some weird reason, tolerates the nerd king.” Jessica snorted. “Just how many versions of that have you seen? Is this some crazy hobby you have, tracking down underground Musketeers videos?”

Settling back a little on his lap while still facing him, she ran a hand over his head, feeling its smooth skin. “Breakfast club? Is that like the kids who get free lunch at school?” 

She’s trolling him now.

“Anyway who said I’m in love with you? Did you hear me say that?”

“A nerd king that can crush a car, don’t leave that part out. And I’ve seen classic Three Musketeers, modern takes including the John Woo Kung-fu version, and my favorite one is the Disney Live Action Version…MY GOD NO! The Breakfast Club has nothing to do with breakfast!”

Luke is not sure if she’s being coy or serious about not knowing, given her childhood its possible.

“Of course you love me, that goes without saying. I can see it everytime you look at me or hold my hand. You and how we feel about each other is the only thing I’m sure of without a doubt. And until you’re ready, I’ll say I love you knowing you feel the same, as long as you want me to.”

“Yeah, well, I guess if you piss a nerd off enough, he might find a way to summon up rage.” Jessica keeps a straight face, suppressing a grin at his horror at her supposed not knowing the Breakfast Club. “If it has nothing to do with breakfast why call it that? Sounds lame. If they’re having a club around food, make it the wings club or the tacos club. Pizza club even.” 

At his response back to her about knowing her love for him, Jessica loses the playfulness, lowering her head. She is very still, no longer messing with his head or neck, fighting equally strong urges to show affection and to run from it. She swallows, then makes herself speak.

“I’ve lost so much. I don’t know how much more I could take.”

“Hey, I’m right here and have no plans of going anywhere, I’m committed to you. Hell you couldn’t get rid of me even if you wanted to. Even your complete absence of having seen good movies isn’t enough to scare me off. I get to see all my favorite movies through your eyes now,” Luke nudged her, gentle but sincere.

Jessica shifts, sliding off his lap. She smirks, sliding back into troll mode. “How about for every movie you show me, I pick one for you. We can start with, oh, Killer Klowns from outer space, then move onto every movie I can come across where the dog dies. You like feelings, should be up your alley.”

“No! No goddamn clowns, bastards creep me out! Can we split the difference and watch something we both like? Anyway none of this matters till we get a TV.” 

He slid his hand between her thighs and started massaging them, not trying to initiate sex, just because they’re warm and comforting. Jessica grins devilishly, filing this information away for further use.

“Cool, I totally won’t use that later on.” 

Her leg muscles twitch, then relax against his touch, and she opens them a little, giving him easier access as she leans back against the back of the couch.

“Don’t even think about it! I swear if I walk in to a bunch of clowns I will lock the door and burn the place down, there are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed. You wouldn’t want me to hide your favorite leather jacket and replace it with something that Trish would wear, right? Probably something pink. So don’t play.” 

Luke lay his head against her. “Hey, want to order some food and sit on the floor and make out like a couple of teenagers whose parents are out of town?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Jessica said mock innocently, holding up her hands. “Just remember, cross me and I have that info. I’m capable of bad, bad things.” 

At his suggestion, Jessica sits up, pushing him playfully to the floor, and then straddles his chest. Her hair falling forward to tickle his face, she kisses him deeply, massaging the muscles of his chest.

“Bad bad things, you? Doubtful, you’re just an angelic being of light…wait today’s not opposite day.” 

Luke stretches his torso up to kiss her, putting his arms around her and pulling her into his chest. 

“Think we should christen this apartment?” Meaning have sex in every room until the neighbors complain.

Jessica wraps her legs around his waist, pulling them both up into a seated position while still straddling him. “Sounds like a plan.”

No further words wasted, Jessica kissed him hard, already tearing off his shirt in preparation.


	14. Chapter 14

It took days for Luke’s injuries to full heal, and even longer for his ego to heal. He was finally up and about; he even got in a workout, something he rarely felt the need to do. This was more of an exercise of clearing his head than anything else.

Jessica’s wounds took less time than expected thanks to Danny’s power to heal. Danny was up and about late the day after their encounter with Innis, after he spent most of the day in bed. Although he was awake and walking around he wasn’t 100 percent. The power of the Ironfist still hasn’t recovered, but he was hardly defenseless. He continued to train with Trish, not needing the fist to teach her.

Luke, staying close to Jessica, decided they were all well enough to discuss their next moves. A Plan B and maybe a C and D. Something had to work on this guy other than dropping a damn nuke on him. Eventually Danny, Luke, Jessica and Trish finally gathered together in the living room.

“Right so what’s our next move? I’m open to anything other than getting my ass kicked again!” Luke grunted.

Jessica was pretty used to getting injured. Even with super powers, she was wreckless and self destructive enough that she had managed to break bones and knock herself unconscious countless times, and the risk of injury increased more when she got drunk enough. So it wasn’t her injuries that shook her up. It was Luke’s. She had thought him incapable of being hurt, and now, knowing someone out there could and gladly would, she finds herself constantly on guard, needing to check that he is still safe.

She can’t stop thinking of Patrick Innis, dead because he had finally tried to do the right and brave thing. The man was kind of a weasel, but he had tried to change, and she can’t help but feel responsible for his death. And above all, she can’t stop thinking about Gabriel Dowling, about the trust his mother had placed in her to find him, and all the children already dead long ago. She hates to take the time to heal before going after Innis again, but she knows it is necessary if she wants to have any chance of actually helping the boy.

Once everyone is sufficiently recovered, they gather in Danny’s living room, and Jessica notices how closely Trish sticks to Danny, practically as though they are attached. But she is hardly in the mood to tease. Jessica herself constantly fidgets and paces, on edge.

“We need to know how he got his powers,” she said. “If he was born with them, or got them later, if he sought them out deliberately. Then maybe we can figure out how to strip them or any weaknesses they have.”

Danny nodded in agreement. “How do we go about doing that, it’s not like he’s registered or something?” 

Luke is hardly a detective but it dawns on him where to start. “Didn’t his brother say something about his wife or girlfriend being killed by a super? There has to be something on that we can find a lead on. But Misty is out of the country and I have no contacts with the police.” 

Danny shrugs. “Don’t look at me, I don’t know anyone either. Jessica, you have to know someone considering your probably many encounters with the police.” 

Danny smirks, finally getting a good poke at Jessica. Luke doesn’t debate him either, just looks away. 

“I can tell you this much, he’s not like me…his powers aren’t mystical, I sensed nothing like that when healing Jessica.”

"Right, that's a start," Jessica nodded. "Patrick said his wife's name was Stella Innis. Not sure of spellings but there's only so many possibilities, it isn't like she's a Jessica. I should be able to pull some documents on her and her death, that might give us a start. And we can see if Innis has a record, might help track him too."

"What does that mean, his powers arent mystical?" Trish asked, frowning. "Are they genetic, or put on him by accident or on purpose? Or, like a spell?" She paused. "Are spells a thing?"

Danny laughs. "I don't cast spells, I channel my chi. I'm thinking yes, his powers are genetic or maybe tech based.Like Luke and Jessica, they were experimented on and science is behind their powers. I doubt this villain's powers would work on me, but if he took either of your powers again, without my Ironfist, I can't touch him."

"Well maybe we should avoid him and just grab the kid,” Luke suggested. “Danny and Trish could go all Ninja and get the kid out while Jessica and I keep his attention. At least the kid would be safe."

"Don't you need to find him first?” Danny poined out. “ I mean just looking into his wife may or may not lead us any closer."

"Finding his wife could lead to finding him," Jessica explained. "Obituaries list surviving relatives, which may be helpful to track down or get more info, and if I go to the funeral home, I can maybe get his address. It would be easier if he had an arrest record, then the address is public, but we can't count on it. Plus we don't know that he's keeping Gabriel in his home. To find him, we have to understand him, and the wife could be key." 

Trish frowns as Danny makes a plan. "So basically you and Jess would offer yourselves up as punching bags again? No, I don't like that idea. Scratch that."

"Trish," Jessica sighed, but Trish shook her head, adamant. 

"Jessica, you could die. You both barely recovered now!"

Luke smiles at Trish. "He's killed at least half a dozen kids trying to take their powers. And I don't think the police are even aware what's going on or if they could do anything about him. It's just us. We're all that little boy has and he's running out of time." 

Danny sits up in his chair." Then same plan, only change the players. I doubt he can take my power. And if he's not super charged with both yours, we could take him...probably. Trish is no master at Soft Fist Style but has shown to be an exceptional student.”

"You know I'm doing this and you know why," Jessica emphasized to Trish. "You're always going on about doing the right thing and being a so called hero, so here I am. I think a little kid's life is worth risking mine." 

Trish sighed but nods, biting her lip. "We'll keep him busy."

"I'll knock around a few heads, beyond the regular research," Jessica nodded. "He doesn't seem the type for group work or alliances, but maybe he's made some enemies."

After their meeting and tentative planning on regaining custody of Gabriel, the missing child, Jessica had set to work in earnest on tracking down clues as to Anthony Innis’s whereabouts. She had been uncertain at first as to how to spell his name, so far as searching for arrest records, and the name Anthony was common enough that both Anthony Ennis and Anthony Innis turned up multiple results in a simple search.

It occurred to her shortly after that with Patrick Innis being the man’s brother, and with his body undoubtedly recovered by the police, there would be reports of his murder in the news. She found those articles, along with an obituary for him, easily enough, and there gave her the correct spelling for Anthony Ennis, as he was listed among the next of kin. She noted as well that neither man had children listed as next of kin for Patrick, nor any surviving parents or other close relatives. 

The man really was some kind of monster. Jessica too had lost all her family; the only person left she claimed as such was Trish, and she could not imagine any circumstances possible where she would kill the only family she still possessed.

Still, the information was valuable and gave her the in she needed to track Anthony down. It occurred to her that as the only next of kin, it was likely Anthony himself who wrote the obituary and arranged the burial and wake services for his brother. To do otherwise would look odd, and certainly he must want to appear to be a grieving brother rather than a murderer publically. With the funeral and wake times and locations listed in the obituary, it was easy enough for her to come up with a way to get the man’s phone number and address. 

She would have made the call herself, but Jessica found it far easier to fake an air-headed bimbo personal over the phone rather than one of a man. Therefore she enlisted Danny, since his voice wasn’t as deep as Luke’s and therefore closer to Anthony’s, providing him with a script to impersonate Patrick Innis’s brother over the phone. She had asked Danny to tell the funeral home’s worker who answered that he was Anthony Innis and wished to have the flowers from Patrick’s wake and funeral to be delivered to his home after the services rather than to have to carry them there himself. She had him ask the funeral home to confirm that they had the correct address and phone number for him to send the flowers to.

It was that simple. The workers provided the address and phone number without suspicion. They could be fake, of course, but they could deal with the possibility if it came. For now, they had a name, an address, and a plan of sorts. Gabriel Dowling couldn’t wait any longer; it was time to bring him home.

The group waited until just after one in the morning before the time of their breaking into Innis’s home. It was a private penthouse not as luxurious as Trish or Danny’s, but certainly larger and more private in style than most people in NYC could afford. Although the building had doormen and guards stationed on its outside, Jessica found a way around this by simply jumping up to its balcony, hauling first Danny, then Luke, then Trish after her with each leap.

It was likely that the place had some sort of alarm system in place that would be triggered the minute one of them broke through the balcony door, but she wasn’t worried about that. What mattered now was grabbing the kid and getting out of the place with him safe; they could deal with cops or other outsiders bumbling into things later, if it came to that. She could not see any light or movement inside the place from the outside, but that didn’t mean that there was no one present, or that there was no waiting threat. That too didn’t matter to her. Time to do the work she’d been hired for, the work that was right.

Luke grabs Jessica by the shoulder and gestures her to wait. "Remember we can't let him see us or he'll take our powers, and then Danny and Trish can't stop him. We have to hang back."

Danny, dressed in his black outfit with a mask covering the top of his face, stands in front on the glass door.

"If making noise and drawing his attention is the plan then it's ok if I make an entrance?" Danny asked before snapping his fingers, similar to how he blew his candles out, but a much stronger shockwave. It shattered the glass in the door, and he smiled, stepping through. 

"We wait till he sees Trish and Danny then we tear the place apart to find the kid!" Luke reminded Jessica.

Jessica very much dislikes being second string; waiting, rather than plunging forward and kicking ass right away, is not something she likes, but she can understand the need. She has to practice patience and pride swallowing pretty often on the job when necessary, and she can do it now. 

She smirks again as takes in Trish, fairly certain the woman had deliberately coordinated her outfit to match Danny's. Trish too is in black, her face partly covered with a partial ski mask, hair tucked up inside it. Jessica is sure she is supposed to look like a badass ninja, but to Jessica she looks like a cheap mugger. 

She keeps her eyes on Danny and Trish as they enter the place, noting that she heard no audible siren. Maybe it was a silent alarm, or maybe the way Danny triggered it hadnt set it off. Or maybe the man was so arrogant he didn't think he needed security. She wouldn't be surprised. 

As Trish entered with Danny, far too confidently for Jessica's comfort, she stays near him, eyes darting as she looks for any movement to indicate Innis or anyone else nearby. As her eyes adjust to the room's darkness, she frowns, apprehensive. 

"Danny...if he's here, shouldnt he be running to see what happened after you broke the glass? He might be holding the kid hostage...drawing us to them instead." 

On impulse she raised her voice to shout. "Open up, police! Anthony Innis, you're under arrest!"

Back on the balcony, Jessica tensed. "What the hell is she doing, has she lost it?" 

But there is no response, either from Innis or a child. Trish looked to Danny, unsure what to do.

Danny shrugs at Trish when nobody shows. He snaps his fingers again, sending a wave through the apartment and shattering all the glass and mirrors in the apartment. Still no response or reactions.

"Its ok, no bad guys here. You guys can come in now."

Luke enters the apartment, looking around at all the shattered stuff. "Damn Rand, remind me never to listen to Jazz with you. Snapping your fingers could trash my place." 

Danny pairs off with Trish and start searching the apartment while Luke searches with Jessica.

"I really hope we got the right place and didn't trash some poor old lady's knickknacks. Hope Danny brought his checkbook."

Jessica snorted at Luke's quip as she followed the other two into the building. "So I see we're going for the quiet, subtle approach."

She started with opening every door she encountered, tensed to jump back out of range of fire if needed, just in case. Trish echoes her actions. The first doors they open are a closet, a bathroom, and a bedroom. All look normal and are unoccupied; where the hell was the guy at this time of night? Was someone clueless enough to date him? Or could he be scouting another victim? 

Sudden apprehension tightened Jessica's chest just as she opened the next door. She stilled, one hand automatically moving back to touch Luke's chest as she took in its interior. Even with the lights off, it was obvious this wasn't right. The room had a small bed against one wall, but shackles were attached to its posts. There was a steel table that rather looked like a turkey or mortician table in its center, lined with various instruments.

As Jessica felt for the light switch, she saw that there was a cabinet against the opposite wall containing vials, unidentifiable liquids, and other instruments. The child was nowhere to be seen. Had Innis somehow known they were coming and moved him? 

"Well," she mumbles, exhaling. "This isn't no old lady's place." To Trish and Danny, she called out, "come look in here. I think he had the kids in here, but they're gone now." 

Trish came forward behind her, eyes wide. "Wow...Dr. Jekyll. Or is it Mr Hyde?"

Danny followed close behind Trish. "Whoa, creep factor just tripled." 

Luke is a bit more horrified and trying to contain his anger, thinking about all the kids that must have been tortured and died in this room, praying for someone to save them. And nobody came…the pain and despair they must have felt while a monster did things to them. 

"Spread out and find the kid or something that can lead us to him!"

Luke had been debating in his head whether or not he really wanted to kill this man, but how can he let someone that could do this to kids live?

“Jessica this room…he did so much for God knows how long! We have to stop him!"

“The kid isn’t here, Danny,” Jessica said flatly. “Not unless he can go invisible. We’re too late. He moved him.” She hopes the kid was moved, anyway. The alternative is not something she wants to consider.

Trish sticks close to Danny, her unease plain in her expression; she doesn’t want to venture too far apart from him, and she keeps glancing back at the shackles on the bed, the instruments by the gurney, the odd liquids in the cabinet. 

“How…how could anyone do this to a child? This is terrible,” she whispers, as though afraid speaking any louder would somehow bring Innis himself to their side. “This is evil.”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised,” Jessica said harshly, the roughness of her tone and words covering up her own upset towards what they are seeing. “People are fucked up, Trish. If you can call this guy a person, I’m thinking asshole or thing is a more appropriate term. Keep it together.”

Trish looks momentarily stunned and hurt, but steels herself visibly, wandering over to the cabinet to inspect the contents. Jessica doesn’t want to look at Luke to see his own response; it will be harder for her to take than Trish’s. She doesn’t meet his eyes as she answers him. 

“Yeah, that’s why we’re here. To figure out how to stop him.”

She goes to a short file cabinet beside the cabinet Trish is rifling through, attempting to open it. It’s locked, but she breaks it open with a punch and yanks the now mangled drawer open. Inside are neatly labeled files, each printed with names that she immediately recognizes as those of the missing children. Seeing Gabriel Dowling’s towards the front, Jessica removes his file and opens it up, flipping past the first photo and steeling herself against the wide-eyed terror the child’s eyes so plainly show. 

She scans through the first few pages, noticing that they appear to be notes on the child’s reflexes and responses to various “stimuli” given by Innis. His “tests” on the child get more and more intense until they are undoubtedly torture, and she thins her lips, quickly flipping past the written notes.

But the next page beyond the written notes makes her suck in her breath audibly, her stomach flipping inside out. She is now looking at a photograph of Gabriel’s dead body, neatly cut open, insides on display, in the manner of a an autopsy. Beside the photo are more meticulously kept notes, detailing the results of Innis’s “research,” but Jessica doesn’t read through them. She can’t seem to tear her eyes away from the image of the image of the child she had been hired to find- the child she would never be able to bring back home.

“Jess? What is it?” Trish asks, coming up behind her to peer over her shoulder.

By the time Jessica has registered what the other woman is doing, Trish has already taken in the picture she is still staring at. Her face drains of all color, her blue eyes widening until they seem nearly all that is left of her face, and she starts to tremble, at a loss for words.

Jessica slammed the file shut, taking a step away from her to keep her from looking any longer, but the image is already etched into Trish’s mind. Silent tears begin to stream down her cheeks, and she starts to say something, but it comes out choked and unintelligible. Trish covers her face with both hands, her shoulders heaving as she cries.

“Oh no…oh no…how could he…how?”

Jessica shoves the file at Luke wordlessly, then snatches up the one behind it, labeled Peyton Irving. She flips through more quickly this time, finding a very similar picture of this child, and throws the file back down. She isn’t thinking clearly to take pictures of what she is seeing, she’s just searching for further evidence, further proof that each of the missing children has been murdered. She flips through each file almost in a frenzy, confirming to herself that each file belongs to a child who is dead, undoubtedly at Anthony Innis’s hand. As she reaches the last file, she lets it drop down to the floor, every muscle taut with shock, grief, and growing rage.

Then she explodes. Grabbing the gurney in the center of the room, she flips it, snatching instruments off the ground and breaking them in half. She snatches vials, bottles, and containers from the cabinet and throws them against the wall, kicks the file cabinet over, and then stomps it. It’s very possible she’s damaging some of the evidence they need, but right now she can’t think of that and doesn’t care. She has to lash out at something, in absence of the ability at the moment to lash out at Innis.

Luke takes one look at the pictures and falls to his knees, wanting to explode like Jessica, but lacking the will power to stand back up. Even Danny, who has seen more than his share of horrors, is shaken to his core. 

"This man is evil. I don't think he can even be called a man anymore, only someone with no soul could commit such atrocities to an innocent child!" 

Luke looks up at Jessica, finally getting back to his feet. “We need to call the cops so they can contact their families, so they can know what happened!"

Jessica is in no mood to contact anyone and Trish definitely isn't capable; she is still crying, seeming frozen. Ignoring everyone but Luke, Jessica starts gathering up files in her arms, breathing shallowly but regaining some control. Her eyes are hard and her voice is rough when she answers. 

"Call, then. Get what you can of evidence before he comes back. Trish, go wait on the balcony, we're leaving."

She went rigid and her head swiveled as she heard the click of a key turning in the lock, and the front door opening and shutting. One arm still holding the files, Jessica grabbed Trish with the other, yanking her behind herself in an automatic effort to protect her. Anthony Innis's footsteps came sounded, coming closer, until he came to stand in the open doorway of the room. 

"Well, this is quite the mess," he commented, nodding towards the glass strewn over the floor. "Fortunately, I didn't plan on staying here much longer. I suppose now is as good a time as any for a change." He held up a phone in his hand, tapping its screen. "You see, my security system sends video alerts to me directly should I be plagued by intruders. Very handy, and no need to involve outside officials. You may find it difficult to prove anything to them, by the way. Seems to me that I have video evidence of your vandalism and harassment, and thanks to Ms Jones here, her fingerprints all over things. How is it that you would prove she herself didn't create the files and plant them on me? She's the PI, after all, and the one with a history of arrests and violence to her name." 

He shrugged, taking another step forward. "But then it would be better still if you simply made no effort to leave. Better for you, certainly."


	15. Chapter 15

Luke grabs Jessica's arm to make sure she doesn't rush in as Danny steps out into the open, his fist tight but not glowing. 

"I believe the law is no longer an issue for any of us any longer, monster! There will be no arrests or trials, only justice!" Danny snaps his fingers just like before, shattering the man's phone in his hand before lowering himself into a fighting stance. "You've preyed on the weak for too long- now you are my prey!"

His movements are barely trackable by eye. Almost instantly in the man's face, his fist just barely making contact with his chest, he sends him flying into a wall. 

"Soft Fist technique, gentle palm." Moving into a different stance, Danny attacks again, this landing a shot to the face with enough impact to destroy the wall behind him too. "Soft fist technique gentle wave!"

Innis grunts in pain, but gets to his feet with less difficulty than what any normal person should. Cracking his neck, he lunged at Danny, socking him with Jessica and Luke's combined strength. 

Trish screamed, fearful that Danny would be killed, and Jessica tried to shake Luke's hand off her, more intent now than ever on making her best shot at killing him. But with her strength gone she is no match against him in being able to break free, especially while hanging onto the files. 

Coming towards the two, Innis casually grabbed the arm holding the files and squeezed until a bone in her forearm cracked with an audible pop. Jessica yelped, unwillingly dropping the files, which Innis caught easily. Releasing her with a dismissive shove, he inclined his head with mock respect to the group, then strode to the balcony. Files under his arm, he jumped down beyond their reach.

Danny managed to get his guard up just in the nick of time, but the blow did send him flying back into the wall on the other side of the room. By the time he's back on his feet Innis is gone, Danny no longer able to see or sense him. 

"Dammit! He got away, I should have just finished him! But I wanted to make him suffer!" 

Luke reached for Innis too, but he was too fast, gone before Luke could react. 

"Jessica!" He shouted when he heard her bone break. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Innis was long gone. Danny walks over to Jessica, using his mask to wrap around her arm before using his chi to dull the pain, not needing to use as much power this time. 

"Should hold you till we get home, then we can set it properly." Danny looks at Trish and tries to comfort her and assure her he's fine."Don't worry, his hit is nothing compared to the real thing. Luke and I used to spar together and neither of us held back. Even with Jessica's strength added in I'm fine."

Luke comes to a revelation. "JESSICA! I think Danny is onto something, not only is him taking our powers temporary, but he can't use them to their full potential. Sure he gets a cliff notes kind of knowledge but he doesn't know how to use them fully. So doesn't that mean he doesn't know our limitations?"

Jessica held her arm against her side, pain sparking through the limb, but ignored it. She is still raging. 

"I'm going to kill that fucker, I'm going to rip his spine out through his fucking nose!"

Trish is hovering between Jessica and Danny, not knowing who to check on. She goes for the safe answer of Danny, since Jessica would likely instinctively lash out, and grabs his hand, squeezing. 

"That's...That's good, right?" Trish asked Luke uncertainly. "What are your limitations though? Jessica isn't bulletproof or knife proof...any weapon proof, I guess. But then you are." 

Jessica shakes her head, unable to think clearly. "Hard to use limits if he isn't here to use them on. Lets get the fuck out of here, I can't breathe the same fucking air he's been breathing here any longer." 

Not waiting for anyone to answer, she stalks to the balcony, takes a second to check that her abilities have returned, then jumped down. She lands unsteadily and staggers, almost falling, then starts walking to Danny's truck. 

Trish stares after her, looking lost. "I guess we take the stairs."

Luke nods at Trish. "She needs time to process. I'll take her home and we'll talk tomorrow." 

Danny steps to the balcony to make sure Jessica did land safely, afterwards he takes Trish and leaves through the door. To make sure both their faces are hidden Luke gives Danny his hoodie, which draped him like a blanket. Luke follows Jessica over the balcony. He’s never used his powers like this before, so as he dropped down he hoped he won't become a puddle of internal injuries when he landed. 

Fast, like meteors have fallen from space with less force, he makes a crater when he lands so deep he has to climb out of it. Catching up to Jessica, he does not know what to say because he's just as upset and angry as she is. He just opens the door for her and gets in after her. Luke sits next to her, holding her hand of the arm that was broken. Jessica doesn't look at Luke as he comes beside her. Her hand is limp in his and she stays silent, staring out the window, body rigid. 

Trish comes with Danny some time later, also quiet, but far more physically and emotionally connected with Danny. When they arrive at Luke and Danny's new place, she touches Luke's arm to get his attention. 

"Please...watch her." She knows Jessica hears but says it nevertheless. To Jessica she says quietly, "Be careful. Please. I need you to be safe."

Jessica doesn't acknowledge her, her eyes distant; she is behaving as though she is alone in the car, emotionally distancing herself. Trish looks to Danny, worrying a manicured nail. "Are we...going home, or...?"

Danny nods to Trish. "Yeah, I just want to set your sister's arm, then we can get out of their hair." 

Danny kneels in front of Jessica with his medical kit, pulling out splints and tape. 

"You got hurt because I failed." 

Using his powers to dull the pain while he sets the bone, he applies the splint and then taped it in place before standing up and walking back to Trish. 

"I'm sorry Jessica. Ok, let's go home." 

Luke walks them to door and pats Danny on the back. "Wasn't your fault. We were all there, we all failed to stop him."

Jessica's eyes focus briefly as Danny finishes setting her arm and apologizes to her. Flashing fire, she shakes her head at him, correcting him fiercely. 

"No. This was my client. My case. You got pulled into this by me. It was my job to find that boy and bring him home. Mine. I'm the one who fucking failed."

"Jess," Trish whispered, her features crumbling, but Jessica ignored her, moving past Luke to go inside.

In the car with Danny, Trish lowers her head, again fighting tears, her shoulders quivering. "I can't stop seeing him. Danny, you didn't see what he did to him. It wasn't your fault, it wasn't her fault either," she whispered through her tears. "I just...I wish I could have saved him." 

In their apartment, Jessica moves directly to the cabinet holding their alcohol. She removes four bottles of Wild Turkey and one of Jack Daniels and still standing at the cabinet, starts drinking, downing two bottles in very short order.

Luke returns to Jessica after seeing Danny and Trish out, leaning against the wall and looks at the bottles Jessica is drinking from. He sighs deeply before speaking. 

"I know you're in pain and feeling emotionally raw right now, so tonight I'm gonna let you have this little pity party. Because tomorrow we're gonna get up, dust ourselves off, and go hunt that bastard down! And we're gonna do it as many times as it takes even if we get hurt or fall short.  
His damn luck has to run out sooner or later! So you drink all you want tonight, tomorrow we get back to work!"

As Danny and Trish drive home he stays silent the entire drive home. Only when they get back to the penthouse Danny falls against the wall, coughing up blood. Seems he wasn't fast enough to stop Anthony's punch after all, and instead of using his chi to heal himself, he used most up it to help Jessica. 

"Dammit that really hurts!"

Jessica opened and took a long pull from another bottle before looking up at Luke, eyes so dark they seem black. She lifts her chin, defiant, and scoffs. 

"Thanks for the permission, didn't know you were my keeper." 

She takes another drink, fingers tightening on the bottle, which sends a spasm of pain up her arm. She ignores it even as her agitation spikes, then turns on him abruptly. 

"Pity party? Fuck off, Luke, you think that's what this is? This is me doing the only shit I know to do to stop feeling anything. I don't pity anyone but people who actually put their trust in me when I don't do what I should to deserve it. This isn't about pity. This is the only thing I know to do to have control!"

She breaks the glass accidentally and swears, kicking it out of range of her feet. "You're right about one thing, tomorrow I'm finding him, and I'm fucking killing him. Because this was my goddamn responsibility, and I didn't follow through. I don't care if it kills me, I'm taking him down. But right now? This is how I deal. So stop fucking judging or go deal your way and leave me to deal mine." 

As Trish comes into the penthouse with Danny, calmer but red eyed, Danny falls, coughing up blood. Letting out a horrified gasp, she fell to her knees beside him, inspecting his head and abdomen anxiously for injury.

"Oh my god, Danny! What happened, where are you hurt! We have to get you to a hospital!"

"Not judging you, if I'm judging anyone its myself,” Luke responded to Jessica quietly, not moving towards her. “I was helpless to stop him from hurting AGAIN! But I don't have time to dull myself with alcohol. Although maybe I should, it's not like I know what the hell to do with myself right now. Anyway I shouldn't have said anything to you. So tell you what, you do you." 

Grabbing a book off the shelf, he walks outside onto the balcony. He sits in one of the chairs and tries to read, but realizes there isn't enough light out here to do that. But he's in no mood to go back and face her. 

"Well shit."

Back at the Penthouse, Danny waves off Trish. "No hospitals, just help me to our bed. You can tape me up like you do Jessica. You can handle this, Trish, you're stronger then even you know." 

Danny leans against her, trying to get back to his feet. "Trish, I swear I'll be good in a few hours, so no more crying, promise me. You shouldn’t cry over me anymore, use that energy into your training after you put me to bed."

Jessica finishes the third bottle, telling herself she doesn't care what Luke does or thinks. But by now she's getting drunk, fast, and for once it doesn't seem to be helping numb or manage anything. She takes out another bottle, but her hand is shaking, and she knows if she tried too hard to open it she would probably break it too. She set it down, jaw set, and realized that even with all the alcohol she is trying to use to flatten out her thoughts and feelings, her skin is itching, almost crawling with a desperately antsy, unclean feeling. She feels dirty, tainted somehow just from seeing the pictures, as though she had someone taken the children's blood and body fluids onto her own skin. Images of Gabriel Dowling and his neatly opened torso flickered into her mind in a loop, and the shaking of Jessica's hands worsened. 

Abruptly she took off to the shower, stripping her clothes off roughly as she walked and letting them drop all down the hall. She turned the shower on as hot as it would go and started scrubbing her body roughly. Her pale skin quickly reddened and grew tender between the heat and roughness, but she didn't care. She still feels dirty. 

Jessica could feel tears building and fought them hard, sniffing and rubbing her palms across her face, but eventually a few broke free. When she started to cry, the sound of it is ugly and harsh, and she feels like she is choking. She puts her face directly into the nozzle's stream, shaking as her body fights both to suppress and release her emotion. 

"Danny...why are you hurt? Is it because of what you did for Jessica?" 

Trish is not reassured as she struggles to support him and get him to bed. Running for the supplies should need, she returned to him, taking off his shirt gently and beginning to work on his ribs, taking great care to be gentle. But her hands still when he tells her not to cry over him. 

"You hero people, you just don't get it, do you? You think that's all that matters about you, like the only value you have is what you can do to as save lives. You matter to me, Danny, even if you never used your powers again. Jessica matters to me. Why can't you two ever see that? This wasn't your fault! And you are worth crying for, both of you! You are worth everything!" 

Her eyes are glistening again, but she keeps back tears. "Don't ever sacrifice yourself for no reason, don't ever believe you aren't worth as much as someone else."

Danny nods he gets it and knows it was wrong of him to have asked that of her.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry I said that. And you're right, it's selfish of me to ask you to share a life with me and then stupidly risk all we're trying to build together. I'll be more careful." 

He lays back into bed, holding out his hand to her. 

"If I ever act so stupid again please kick my ass till I come to my senses again."

After a bit of time to come to his senses, Luke comes back inside, ready to apologize to Jessica. Not seeing her at their bar anymore, but observing all the empty bottles, he assumes she went to bed. He decides to talk tomorrow and let her sleep, but as he walks down the hallway he first hears the shower running. As he came closer he can hear her crying.

He pushes open the door and sees her in the shower, which is way too hot, scrubbing her skin raw. Fully clothed he steps into the shower, wrapping his arms around her and putting himself in front of the water as he silently holds her in his arms.

Trish takes a breath, nodding, and gives him a weak smile. She slips her hand into his and lies down in bed beside Danny, carefully resting her head against his shoulder. 

"I will. I'm getting better at martial arts, you know. One day I'll be able to."

Jessica hears the shower door open and tenses, scrubbing her hands harder over her face. When Luke pushes the curtain aside and steps in with her, putting his arms around her, she tries to pull away, hating what he is seeing and not feeling like she has the right to show or feel this kind of emotion. Not to mention hating the experience of it taking over. 

She turns away, but the shower is far too small to allow for them both to stand in there with any sort of personal space, and as her shoulder then back brush against him, she feels another sob threaten to break out against her will. She is not used to this, crying in front of someone; hell, she isn't used to crying very much at all,

Outside of nightmares, severe panic attacks, or experiencing deaths that impact. But this day had certainly been a nightmare and involved multiple deaths that mattered a hell of a lot to her, and she can't logic or shame away her response. She is not used to allowing others to comfort her, let alone seeking it out herself, so with her back still in some contact with Luke, she stays still, hand over her face, tears leaking between her fingers, open to him embracing her again, but not turning back to seek it out.

Luke stands with her silently until the hot water eventually runs out and turns ice cold. He reaches around her to turn off the water, then stretches out to grab a towel. wrapping it around Jessica and patting her dry before picking her up and walking with her to lay her down on the bed. He walks out to shower himself for a few minutes; when he returns he's naked with only a towel wrapped around his waist and one hanging around his neck.

He sits on the bed next to Jessica, setting two glasses on the nightstand, one with whiskey in itm the other a tall glass if water. The entire time he hasn't said a word to her until he sits next to her. 

"Jessica I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything to you." 

He stands and walks around to the other side of the bed, laying next to her.

Slightly calmer, tears spent, Jessica allows Luke to carry her to bed. She is lying with her eyes still open when he returns but sits up a little unsteady, the movements clumsy with her intoxivation. 

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't have...none of this."

She puts a hesitant hand on his chest but doesn't lay back down yet. "I know it’s fucked up. I know. I just... black out, and I don't know what else to do."

Luke sighs, not wanting to say what's on his mind out loud, that he wishes she would pick him to comfort her instead of using alcohol to numb herself. They're supposed to be each other's strength. But he may have to live with this if he wants her to be in his life, after all he did promise her he'd accept every part of her, no matter what, and he's a man of his word. He knew Jessica self-medicated herself. Given her life before him, how could he blame her.

"I really just want to hold you in my arms and fall asleep feeling your warmth against me." 

Jessica sniffs, nodding slowly. Then she settles herself onto him, chest to chest, tucking her head under his chin. She doesn't close her eyes, simply lying there, slowly comforted by the warmth of his body and the beating of his heart.


	16. Chapter 16

Jessica is very used to being alone.  
It’s in her personality type, partly. Even as a kid and teenager, she had always been an introvert, not inclined towards having large numbers of friends. She was more likely to hang out in her room on weekends than go out to party or have sleepovers, and the thought of clubs or team sports had always made her itch. But as she grew older, her simple preference to have some time to herself and to avoid group events had become less about preference and more about self preservation. She kept to herself, because the alternative of making connections with people she would inevitably hurt or lose felt like far too much to bear.  
She had not even dated until she was eighteen years old and in college. Partly because, living with a child star like Trish, she was sure that any guy who expressed an interest in her was actually only wanting to get to Trish and her celebrity status; partly because, between grieving her family and trying to hide her powers, throwing dating into the picture was far too much to juggle and something she had no interest in. What kind of teenager, whose biggest concerns were sports and video games, would really be interested in someone with Jessica’s baggage?  
She had entered college living with Trish, once they moved out of Dorothy’s guardianship, and this had lasted for a couple of years until Trish’s addictions spiraled out of control. Until Kilgrave, Jessica’s college boyfriend Sterling was the only man she had ever lived with other than her own father.  
She had no experience for ten years now in voluntarily living with another man. The very thought of doing so should make her bristle, and she was a little on edge when she thought about the fact that she was about to go through with it for only the second time in her life that counted. But somehow, it was different with Luke than it would be with anyone else. Most things were. Somehow, even if she felt anxiety over the anticipated reality of waking up each morning and going to sleep each night beside him, of all the ins and outs of a daily routine with another human being who wasn’t her sister, Jessica nevertheless had hope that with Luke, it would work out to be okay. This wasn’t a normal perspective for her, but hell, the two of them had already surpassed every pessimistic expectation she had harbored. Why not keep trying to beat the odds?  
It didn’t make sense for them to keep trading off staying on Luke’s couch or in her crowded, dismal office/apartment, not when those overnights were becoming more and more frequent. Trish had told her over and over that she needed to separate her office and working space from her home and living space, and as much as she hated to listen to anything her sister told her to do, there was some truth to that. It was irritating to be in the middle of sex and hear her office voicemail pick up with a client’s voice, that was for damn sure.  
And there was more to this than strict practicality. If she were honest with herself, Jessica knew that she wanted to live with Luke. She wanted to see him every day, to have that expectation that they would end up sharing a bed, sharing simple living space. She wanted to have the comfort of his presence near hers, to have someone to talk to and trade banter with. She had grown so used to being a loner, far beyond her naturally introverted inclinations, that she had forgotten how cold and empty it could feel to be alone.  
She couldn’t say the words, at least not where anyone beyond herself could hear. But Jessica knew that she loved Luke. She felt a depth of emotion and connection with him that she had not even felt for Sterling, and she had certainly thought at the time, ten impossibly long years before, that she knew what it was to love and be in love, to be loved by a man in return. She had barely been legal drinking age. What the hell had she known?  
She had known Luke for a far shorter time than she knew Sterling, and yet Jessica knew with certainty that she loved him and was far more loved by him than what she had experienced with Sterling. And that had to mean that living with Luke was going to be okay. If it wasn’t going to be, well, better figure that out sooner rather than later, before the failure and loss would hurt any more than it already would.  
The apartment they chose together was in Harlem; Luke felt far more attached to his city and being within its limits than Jessica felt about hers. On the day of their move in, Jessica had very little to take with her beyond clothes, toiletries, a very limited collection of dishes and utensils, and a few keepsakes and photos from her childhood. The furniture in her apartment was almost entirely left behind, since she was still renting it as an office space.  
Knowing Trish, she was probably going to force some housewarming party or gift on them, whether or not it was wanted. Jessica hoped that it would be the latter rather than the former. And she really hoped the woman knew any gift she gave her should be some type of alcohol. That was definitely her idea of a good present.

Luke had even less to move to their new place, mostly clothes and a few boxes of books. It’s fine with him, this is an opportunity for him and Jessica to build this place up from scratch, furnishing it with stuff they picked together, starting with a bed that can stand up to their shenanigans but is also warm and comforting.

He’s grateful Jessica agreed to make their home in Harlem. It's a concession whether she knew it or not. He feels much more at home in Harlem, but he also made sure there was enough distance from Harlem's Paradise so that club business doesn't follow him home.

The apartment they chose had great bones, two bedrooms, tall clean walls, hard wood floors and bonus, central air and heating- a rare find in Harlem. Not too many other people lived in the building either, for now at least.

Luke stands next to Jessica after the landlord left them alone in their new place together, his arm wrapped around her. 

"This place…you get this is where we really start a life together? And I'm all in, not a doubt in my mind this is gonna be great!"

Jessica leaned into Luke's arm. Although generally physical affection was something she shied away from, she was getting more and more used to it from Luke. She would never admit it, but it was beginning to feel more than something normal and close to something needed. She had never been one to care much about the roof over her head and what it looked like, as long as she had one. Her previous apartment was proof of that. She had been desensitized and even somewhat put off by fancy places, after living in the Walker home and being put up in fancy places by Kilgrave. But this place is comfortable, nice but not obnoxious, and if Luke is happy, she is too. 

"It works for me," she says. "Gonna be funny for a while though. You see how many people look at us when we were moving in? Can't decide if they're unable to believe a guy who looks like you would pick me, or if they just think I'm actually a cop undercover, gonna bust them up."

Luke kisses Jessica on the cheek, then starts walking around the apartment. 

"Let them think whatever they want out there. In here the world falls away. I'm thinking we turn that second bedroom into an office for us both, I can do some stuff for the club and you can do your case stuff there sometimes. But no clients please. Let's keep all that away from here."

He stopped in front of a large blank wall.

"What do think? A bar maybe? Put a bookshelf in that corner by the window to catch the sun and a nice chair to read…ok that last one is more for me, but we can still do it right?"

"Oh, believe me, I don't want to drag any clients in here," Jessica agreed, following him to face the wall he regarded. "Hell, maybe we should ban Trish and Danny too. Keep this all to ourselves." 

She cocked her head at him, smirking. "Hey, I read. Police reports and cases, still. Just because I'm not a nerd like you..." 

She shook her head, still smiling. "By the way, thank you for not being lame enough to carry me across the threshold. Or were you scared to try?"

Luke turns and grins at her. "That is reserved for a different first. And do you really think you could keep your sister away…your sister, Trish Walker? She'll probably have a key made without our knowledge and come in and redecorate the place while we're sleeping. Note to self, invest in a burglar alarm. Just creeped myself out thinking about that."

Walking to the kitchen, he gives her a feigned puzzled look. "Oh, this must be one of those kitchens I've read, about I wonder how you use one?" Then he laughed, shaking his head. "I'm kidding, finally have a place I can make you dinner or breakfast. Nah, knowing your sleeping habits it’s definitely dinner."

"First? If you're talking sex, we crossed that line long time ago," Jessica laughed. "What, you want a redo?" 

She groaned, rolling her eyes at his comment about Trish. "Oh I know. She was so disappointed I didn't do the teenaged girl diary thing, it would have been her top priority to steal it. Damn, should have kept a fake one and put stuff in it to freak her out....is it too late for that?" 

She raised an eyebrow as she followed him into the kitchen. "Hey, don't look at me about the cooking. You think I learned how, spending my teenaged years living with rich people? And my mom sucked at it. I basically live off pizza, beef jerky, and booze."

"Don't worry, I got this. I used to hang out with some cooks when I was busing tables and picked up a few tips." Luke opened the empty fridge, gesturing inside. “Guess I'm gonna have to do some shopping, and we're gonna need to get some kind of wifi..clean sheets...damn we need a lot of stuff. But don't worry I got this, you won't have to sweat the details if you don't want to."

Luke walks back over to Jessica, taking her hand again. "Nod your head if you're happy and you love me." 

Luke's pocket starts ringing, and he gestures to Jessica to wait just a second while he answers. "Hold that thought." 

It’s Danny on the phone, so Luke answers. 

"Yeah we got it, the place is all ours now. We got some work to do and some stuff to get. Any chance you and Trish can give us a few days before you drop by? Cool, thanks. We can get together this weekend, K…bye."

Hanging up, Luke turned his attention back to Jessica. "Now you were about to indicate how much you love me, and I'm hoping it's even more now that your sister and Danny aren't gonna barge in at least not for a few days."

“Shopping,” Jessica exhaled. It was not something she enjoyed; in fact, she avoided it whenever at all possible. “The last time I moved in somewhere, I just took some of the shit Trish didn’t want. Looks like I’m gonna be the stereotypical dude in this.”

When Luke took her hand, asking her to nod in indication of her feelings for him, Jessica bit the inside of her cheeks, averting her eyes. She does love him, and she’s pretty sure he knows she does too. Why else would he ask her to nod, rather than speak the words aloud? Still, it feels scary, even dangerous, to admit, as though tempting the universe to snatch him away.

She is relieved when Danny’s phone call interrupts them and takes the opportunity to ease away, hoping he’ll be distracted enough to forget the request. No such luck. When Luke turns back to her, she keeps her eyes to the side of him rather than directed towards him as she responds.

“I can’t say it.” 

She says this quietly, and she means it. It had been different when she spoke it before; Luke had been asleep, unable to hear her, and so it somehow felt like it didn’t count. She feels like if she would try, the words would choke her now. 

“I’m sorry.”

But after taking a breath, she does give one abrupt inclination of her head, what could, minimally, be interpreted as a nod. Even much makes her chest tighten with some anxiety.

Luke smiles patiently at Jessica, eyes twinkling. 

"Hey, nod if you love me and I can have a puppy. Also nod if we can buy a Pee Wee Herman pinball machine…and another puppy." 

Letting her off the hook, he nods towards the door leading to the balcony. “This is one of my favorite parts of this. We can set up a grill and some chairs and hang out here sometimes. And on nights you get pissed at me for calling you adorable, I can sleep out here."

Jessica punched him in the arm, hiding her own smile. "Shut up, you ass. Who the hell is Pee Wee Herman, some potty training puppet?" 

She follows him out to the balcony, looking out at the view, posture more relaxed than usual. "So admit it. How many arms did you twist to get this place?"

"Having two supers living in a building is good for business. Also the landlord now has a lifetime reserved VIP booth at my club. Totally worth it, not a multiple million dollar penthouse but I think I'm going to love it here. I was serious about the puppy, by the way. I always wanted one but never had a stable home to keep one." 

Luke slid his arm around her and held her close. 

"How about you? I've told all the things I want to do now that we have our own place, what about you, Jessica? Name it, if you can do anything in the world with this place, what would it be? And a bar can't be one, we already agreed on that."

"Puppy...like, wet noses, puddles on the floor, and whimpering at 2 am puppy," Jessica exhaled, shaking her head. "You wouldn't go for a fish?" 

Leaning into Luke's arm, she regarded the room thoughtfully. "I never thought like that. Nothing was really ever mine, and it wasn't anything I thought was long term. I guess I just want to be happy here. Have some kind of stability. What it looks like or what we do doesn't matter, it's more about what just being ours." 

She rolled her eyes, smirking. "God, did you slip us both sap pills?"

"Hey under this roof, being sappy is acceptable. Which is why I want a puppy. I’m thinking a little beagle, and I'll call him Porthos. And you can add or not add anything you want as long as it's not your sister. I'm still not ruling out her being banned, what with her wanting to experiment on me."

"No, sappy is never acceptable. It rhymes with crappy, so...tells you something." Jessica furrowed her brow, tilting her head. "Porthos? Do I even want to know why?" 

Then she grinned, suddenly looking far closer to a mischievous 12 year old than usual. 

"She did say she wants to test if your insides are also impenetrable. Not totally sure that she was kidding." She's lying but hopes he can't tell. "She also wondered about porous parts like your tongue, if they count as skin.” 

Luke almost choked.

"First off, Porthos is the name of a character from my favorite book, The Three Musketeers. And far more importantly, hell no! Don't let your sister anywhere near my organs and especially no where near my tongue! Why are you two so weird? Like capital W weird."

Luke pulled out his phone and started searching for items like a bed for the apartment, showing Jessica each item as he picks them even though he knows she’s indicated she doesn’t care. He still wants her approval for the choices he makes. 

"The three musketeers? Thought that was a candy bar," Jessica said sarcastically. "I don't know how someone so hot can be such a huge nerd. Every time I think you're a little cool you blow it all over again." 

Jessica hides a grin as Luke responds to her comment on Trish. As he shows her what he is picking for the apartment, she nods along, then eventually slides on his lap, straddling him so she is facing him. She still can't tell him aloud she loves him, but she cups the back of his neck with her hand gently.

"You realize if I'm some nerd king, that makes you my nerd queen, right?” Luke rejoined. “You never had to read The Three Musketeers in school or seen any of the movies? How is that possible? I have to at least get you to watch the Disney Version with Keifer Sunderland."

Luke was not really a person that watches TV, but he loves watching movies. Now he can just imagine sitting on the couch with Jessica snuggled against him, watching The Three Musketeers, with little Porthos laying at their feet. 

"Ok, I'm ordering a TV so we can watch it together, that is non-negotiable..Then we'll watch The Breakfast Club together. I'm gonna show you just how big of a nerd you fell in love with."

"No, it doesn't. It makes me someone who for some weird reason, tolerates the nerd king." Jessica snorted. "Just how many versions of that have you seen? Is this some crazy hobby you have, tracking down underground Musketeers videos?" 

Settling back a little on his lap while still facing him, she ran a hand over his head, feeling its smooth skin. 

"Breakfast club? Is that like the kids who get free lunch at school?" She's trolling him now.  
"Anyway who says I'm in love with you? I didn't say that. Did you hear me say that?"

"A nerd king that can crush a car, don't leave that part out. And I've seen classic Three Musketeers, modern takes including the John Woo Kung-fu version, and my favorite one is the Disney Live Action Version. MY GOD NO! The Breakfast Club has nothing to do with breakfast!"

Luke isn’t sure if she's being coy or serious about not knowing, given her childhood its possible. He grows serious as she lays a hand on her leg. 

"Of course you love me, that goes without saying. I can see it every time you look at me or hold my hand. Us, together, is the only thing I'm sure of without a doubt. And until you're ready I'll say I love you, knowing you feel the same, as long as you want me to."

"Yeah, well, I guess if you piss a nerd off enough, he might find a way to summon up rage." 

Jessica keeps a straight face, suppressing a grin at his horror at her supposed not knowing the Breakfast Club. "If it has nothing to do with breakfast why call it that? Sounds lame. If they're having a club around food, make it the wings club or the tacos club. Pizza club even." 

At his response back to her about knowing her love for him, Jessica loses the playfulness, lowering her head. She is very still, no longer messing with his head or neck, fighting equally strong urges to show affection and to run from it. She swallows, then makes herself speak. 

"I've lost so much. I don't know how much more I could take."

"Hey, I'm right here and have no plans of going anywhere,” Luke murmured, eyes on her avoidant ones. “I'm committed to you. Hell, you couldn't get rid of me even if you wanted to. Even your complete absence of good movie knowledge isn't enough to scare me off. I get to see all my favorite movies through your eyes now."

Jessica shifts, sliding off his lap. She smirks, sliding back into troll mode. 

"How about for every movie you show me, I pick one for you. We can start with, oh, Killer Klowns from outer space, then move onto every movie I can come across where the dog dies. You like feelings, should be up your alley."

Luke shudders. "No! No damn clowns, bastards creep me out! Can we split the difference and watch something we both like? Anyway none of this matters till we get a TV." 

He slid his hand between her thighs, massaging them lightly.

Jessica grins devilishly, filing this information away for further use. "Cool, I totally won't use that later on." 

Her leg muscles twitch, then relax against his touch, and she opens them a little, giving him easier access as she leans back against the back of the couch.

"Don't even think about it! I swear if I walk in to a bunch of clowns I will lock the door and burn the place down! There are certain lines that shouldn't be crossed. You wouldn't want me to hide your favorite leather jacket and replace it with something that Trish would wear, something pink and frilly. So don't play." 

Luke lay his head against Jessica’s, still idly stroking her thigh. "Hey, want to order some food and sit on the floor making out like a couple of teenagers?"

"Hey, I didn't say that," Jessica said mock innocently, holding up her hands. "Just remember, cross me and I have that info. I'm capable of bad, bad things." 

At his suggestion, Jessica sits up, pushing him playfully to the floor, and then straddles his chest. Her hair falling forward to tickle his face, she kisses him deeply, massaging the muscles of his chest.

"Bad bad things, you? Doubtful, you're just an angelic being of light. Wait today's not opposite day." 

Luke stretches his torso up to kiss her, putting his arms around her and pulling her into his chest. 

"Think we should christen this apartment? And by that, I’m thinking have sex in every room until the neighbors call a noise complaint.”

Jessica wraps her legs around his waist, pulling them both up into a seated position while still straddling him. "Sounds like a plan." 

No further words wasted, Jessica kissed him hard, already tearing off his shirt in preparation.


End file.
